Spike Lee‘s newest film, Highest 2 Lowest is an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 police drama High and Low whose hero is played by Denzel Washington. But alongside Washington, works from Lee’s own art collection—or replicas of them, at least—also star prominently.
In the film, artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kehinde Wiley, Deborah Roberts, Gordon Parks, Henry Taylor, and others decorate the luxury home of David King, the music tycoon played by Washington.
Mark Friedberg, the production designer for Highest 2 Lowest, told Artnet News that the film used Lee’s personal art collection as a point of reference, especially after it was surveyed at the Brooklyn Museum in 2023. Reproductions were made of several Basquiats, including Horn Players (1983) and Now’s the Time (1985), Tim Okamura’s 1993 portrait of Toni Morrison, and pieces from Andy Warhol’s “Muhammed Ali” series from 1973.
“We wanted David King to be clearly a man of wealth, but also a man whose creativity is quite apparent just to look at,” Friedberg told Artnet. “By virtue of how his apartment is dressed and designed, we see right off the bat who this man is, how he is.”
In the living room of the King’s residence is Wiley’s Investiture of Bishop Harold as the Duke of Franconia (2005), a portrait of Jackie Robinson that was commissioned by Lee, as well as Frederick J. Brown’s painting Billie, Lester, Fats, and Duke (1993).
Artnet also reported that the penthouse is decorated with historic photographs like Park’s image of Malcom X and the iconic image of Marvin Gaye at the piano in a recording studio shot by Jim Britt. A print of Shepard Fairey’s Kamala Harris FORWARD poster also hangs in the bedroom of King’s son Trey.
The film tracks a day in David King’s life when he plans to buy back shares of his record label, Stackin’ Hits, for $17.5 million. But his integrity is put to the test when he gets a call from someone who claims to have taken Trey, and then details emerge about the kidnapping gone awry.
Highest 2 Lowest opened in theaters on August 15 and will stream on Apple TV+ starting on September 5.
