Spike Lee Brooklyn Museum Exhibit Opens Celebrating Filmmaker

Spike Lee: Creative Sources Opening Night

Source: Courtesy / Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum debuts “Spike Lee: Creative Sources” exhibition opening this month. The opening welcomed VIP guests like Laurence Fishburne, Bill Bradley and Don Lemon.

The exhibit will officially open on Saturday and run through Feb. 4, 2024. “Spike Lee: Creative Sources” offers a rare glimpse into the world of prolific director and filmmaker, Spike Lee, one of the most influential who has transformed the landscape of contemporary cinema and the art of filmmaking.

Through an immersive installation of over 450 objects from his personal collection that have been touchpoints in his creative process, visitors will discover the sources of inspiration that have fueled Lee’s work. Organized around themes of Black American history and culture, Brooklyn, sports, music, cinema history, and family, the exhibition draws connections between the people, places, and ideas behind his creative endeavors. It also marks Brooklyn’s first major exhibition on Lee, an artist whose persona is synonymous with the borough.

‘Spike Lee: Creative Sources’ is an immersive installation that takes visitors into Lee’s world, revealing the people, places, and ideas that have inspired his incisive storytelling.

The objects within the installation represent the wide range of mediums that have inspired Lee, such as historical photographs, paintings, album covers, movie posters, letters, first-edition books, costumes, and film memorabilia (many of which are autographed and signed to the director). They are organized thematically in seven sections, each of which features a clip from one of his groundbreaking films. Shown throughout the exhibition are works by prominent Black American artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Deborah Roberts, Elizabeth Catlett, Michael Ray Charles, Gordon Parks, and James Van Der Zee. Also on view are depictions of Black American and African figures across a spectrum of disciplines, such as Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Shirley Chisholm, Angela Davis, Toni Morrison, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Malcolm X, Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight, Joe Louis, Jack Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Prince—all of whom have made an impact on Lee.

The Brooklyn Museum hosted an intimate opening with notable attendees including Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee, entertainment industry icons David Byrne, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Dean Winters, media personalities Don Lemon and Sunny Hostin, artist Renee Cox, philanthropy leader Darren Walker, and former US Senator and NBA player Bill Bradley.

Keep reading and scroll down to check out photos from this week’s grand opening of “Spike Lee: Creative Sources” at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City.