THE EXHIBITION EXPLORES THE PROFOUND INFLUENCE OF HIP HOP ON CONTEMPORARY ART AND CULTURE IN OUR SOCIETY
THE CULTURE. HIP HOP AND CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY
February 29 - May 26, 2024
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the birth of Hip Hop, the SCHIRN is dedicating a major interdisciplinary exhibition to Hip Hop’s profound influence on the current art and cultural landscape. Hip Hop first emerged in the Bronx, New York in the 1970s as a cultural movement among Black and Latinx youth who expressed themselves through MCing, DJing, graffiti writing, and breakdancing. From its inception, Hip Hop critiqued dominant structures and cultural narratives and offered new avenues for expressing diasporic experiences and creating alternate systems of power, leading to social and political consciousness and knowledge-building. Hip Hop has now evolved into a global phenomenon that has driven numerous innovations in music, fashion, technology, as well as visual and performing arts. Grounded on the origins of Hip Hop in the U.S., yet with a focus on art and music from the last twenty years, the exhibition features over 100 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and videos, as well as fashion and vinyl, by internationally renowned contemporary artists including Lauren Halsey, Julie Mehretu, Tschabalala Self, Arthur Jafa, Khalil Joseph, Virgil Abloh, and Gordon Parks. THE CULTURE illuminates Hip-Hop’s unprecedented economic, social, and cultural resources and furthermore addresses contemporary issues and debates – from identity, racism, and appropriation to sexuality, feminism, and empowerment.
THE CULTURE is co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, and is presented in collaboration with SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT.
