Spike Lee: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A black-and-white photograph of Spike Lee, by Platon. Spike Lee is depicted sitting on a wooden stand. He is facing the viewer with his proper left knee drawn up and with his foot resting on a raised wooden box in front of him. His proper left arm drapes over his proper left knee and his fingers are dangling loosely in front of him. The wooden box has black stenciled text on the top that reads [INDUS[TR?]]. His proper right leg is bent at the knee and leaning towards the left edge of the photograph. His proper right elbow is propped on his proper right thigh and his hand is held loosely in front of him. He is wearing dark tone tracksuit pants, white, high top Air Jordan sneakers, and a black, short sleeve T-shirt with white text printed on the front that reads, [OBAMA / IS THE NEW / BLACK]. He’s also wearing two necklaces over his chest: a dog tag punched with a cross shape, and the other, a large cross formed from six small boxes with skulls inside each box. He is wearing a metal bracelet and wristwatch with a round face on his proper right wrist and a two plain rings on his proper left ring finger. The photograph’s perspective is from an angle that looks up at Lee from just in front of his proper left foot. The background of the photograph is bright white. The photograph has a thick white border. The edition number, [5/12], is printed in the bottom left corner. The photographer’s signature and date, [Platon 19], is handwritten in the bottom right corner. Inside the border, at the bottom center, is the photographer’s embossed mark: [PLATON ? / EDITIONED ? / PRINT ?[encircled between two bands of embossed dots]]. The back of the photograph is plain and white.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 2008; printed 2019
• Photograph by: Platon, British, born 1968
• Subject of: Spike Lee, American, born 1957
• Type: pigment prints
• Type: portraits
• Medium: pigment on paper
• Dimensions: H x W (image): 21 × 20 in. (53.3 × 50.8 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (matted): 22 × 28 in. (55.9 × 71.1 cm)
• Place printed: New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Activism
• Topic: Actors
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Photography
• Object number: 2021.33.38
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Platon
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Platon Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.