ARTISTIC LICENSE?
Artist says downtown mural defaced by brewery sign
Think of it this way: Leonardo da Vinci gives you the Mona Lisa. You hang it in your museum. Then you nail an illuminated “Drink Coca Cola” sign on her.
OK, it’s not that, but kinda.
Havana-born artist Jose Bedia painted his masterpiece, a mural at 332 Evernia St. in downtown West Palm Beach, as part of the city’s first Canvas Outdoor Museum Show in 2015.
Bedia paintings grace New York’s MOMA, Met, Whitney and Guggenheim museums, London’s Tate Modern, Washington’s Smithsonian and Miami’s Perez, so getting him to create a West Palm Beach work of public art was quite a get, said Nicole Henry, the Canvas show founder.
So it was a shock to pass by recently and see that
West Palm work, which carries a deep, spiritual meaning for the artist, now has a big, illuminated “Brewery” sign affixed to it, said Bedia’s son, Jose Jr., his dad’s manager. “It’s an unfortunate disservice, because my father’s really proud of that work. He worked really hard at it.”
Covering the building’s eastern wall, the mural is Bedia’s biggest work, on the order of 125 feet long by 28 feet high. If it could be sold, it would be worth more than $500,000, Henry estimated.
“Clearly these people don’t understand who created that mural or what a masterpiece it is and what an honor it is to have it in West Palm Beach or they wouldn’t have done that,” she said.
The piece is emblematic of Bedia’s style, his son explained, “torsos that ... have this spiritual energy that is half-mountain, half-island, half-human, rising out of the water, recalling how Palm Beach is calling out to the water.”
Scattered across the piece are ancestral Afro-Cuban symbols, power figures that signify strength and vitality, as this half-human, half-island figure looks over and protects and city and gives it an energy, he said.
It’s the kind of work, Henry said, that has made Miami-based Bedia one of the world’s most famous living artists.
And now it’s even more unique, because it’s the only one with a “Brewery” sign on it.
The sign went up after building owner John Pankauski, a litigator who specializes in estates and trusts, transformed the former gym into the West Palm Beach Brewery & Wine Vault, in October. Pankauski — a collector of work by lesser-known artists — was one of several building owners downtown and in Northwood who agreed to let an artist paint a mural on one of their blank exterior walls for the Canvas exhibition.
We couldn’t get through to Pankauski for this article, but according to Raphael Clemente, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, the only way Canvas organizers and the DDA could assemble so many blank slates for the event was to put in writing that owners were free to cover the paintings at any time, at their discretion.
The Bedias recognize that right, Jose Jr. said this week, but added, “me and my father would rather the mural be painted over than have a brewery sign over it.”
They’re hoping the owner either will remove the sign, let them get someone to paint over the mural, or maybe cover it and have the artist paint another mural elsewhere downtown. The idea was that the artist wanted to make a public contribution to the city, Jose Jr. said.
At the Bedias’ request, Clemente spoke to Pankauski about the sign. The owner hasn’t decided whether to remove it but understood the concern and didn’t push back, Clemente said. It’s just a matter of him being too busy at the moment with his law practice and the new craft brewery/restaurant/wine cellar to focus on it, Clemente said. So stay tuned.
Meanwhile Jose Jr. said he and his father have joked that maybe they could work out a deal to have the mural design be part of the label for Pankauski’s craft beers.
“We’re not upset. It’s just a little disappointing,” he said.