See the New Wow Now at The Wynwood Walls
By John Hood
You can’t miss it. And you shouldn’’t. Not if you care about anything anyway, let alone where you’re standing. And you few without a care in the world — this goes for you too; whether you care or not. Because if you eat or you drink or you think or you feel or you watch or you listen or you smile or you swoon or you dream of jumping over a full blue moon, it somehow, someway, somewhere, at some time, pertains to you. And it will continue to do so too, for as long as you breathe.
What’s this it that means so much to so many, you ask? Why it’s the larger-than-life tribute to the larger-than-life Tony Goldman. And it represents a life (and a gentleman) who means more than you know.
Centerpiece and figurehead of Shepard Fairey’s just-created mural within The Wynwood Walls, the rendering of the late, great Tony G does indeed represent pretty much everything under the moon and the stars and the sun. As art, it expertly captures the subject’s tremendous spirit and provides a likeness that is at once right, true, due and memorable. That is to say, it does what all great portraiture is supposed to do — and then some. It’s also a vivid and candid Thank You from the artist whose Hope helped forever change the face of the American presidency. As homage, it’s testament to the multitude of artists whose works can be found within and outside of The Walls, as well as to the multitudes who get to freely revel among the collection’s many wonders each and every day.
But Fairey’s larger-than-life portrait is also larger than art, because it lauds a man whose life affected the lives of everyone from the barista up the block and the bartender working either corner restaurant, through to the celebrities who flock to frolic amid this collection of magnificent masterpieces or one of the the magnificent man’s many other splendid creations. For while The Wynwood Walls may indeed by Mr. G’s most visible legacy, his munificence pretty much stretched from sea to shining sea. And Miami is by no means the only city to be blessed by his life — or his legacy.
And that is why it will mean something to you as long as you breathe; not just as a painting on a wall (though it is a rather rousing picture at that), but as a tribute to a man who affected us all — and to whom we should all be grateful. Anybody needing further proof need only pop through the Walls this Art Week and check out the on site collection of homage and memorabilia put together for the occasion. Better yet, take a walk around a block, any block, and as long as its in Wynwood or South Beach or Soho or Center City it’s a cinch you’ll feel the everlasting effects of the late, great Tony Goldman.
