How much is Alvin Ailey owed? This pressing question lies at the heart of the Whitney Museum of Art’s latest exhibition, . Curated by the museum’s senior curator Adrienne Edwards and presented in partnership with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the exhibit delves into the of Ailey’s legendary life. Nearly seven years in the making, Edwards says she decided not only to engage with the sacred steps of the but to peer intimately into the life of the man.
Ailey once remarked, “I wanted to paint. I made watercolors. I wanted to sculpt.
I wrote poetry. I wanted to write a great American novel.” Edwards uses this notion as a narrative frame to showcase a of unprecedented generosity.
Artworks are arranged thematically yet follow a loose chronology, reimagining the stunted standards of manipulated Southern history before strutting through practices of Black spirituality, migration, liberation, and love. From intimate letters, digitized recordings, poems, and archival footage, the show offers the most formative glimpse into Ailey’s inner life to date. Supported with over 80 all-star artists throughout history—Jean Michel-Basquiat, Kara Walker, Elizabeth Catlett, Mickalene Thomas, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and more—the exhibition utilizes Ailey’s spirit as a “precipice or threshold” to trek the evolution of Blackness through the performing art world.
Edwards was struck most by Ailey’s acute sense of visuality. “If you look at the posters in the show, the way he wri.