goodbread alley
While the art of Purvis Young has always presented a journey to future discoveries – this recently unearthed 16mm footage from the 1972 Ron Williams film ” The Matter With Me”, courtesy of the AV Club at the Miami – Dade Public Library System, provides a look back at the early history of Goodbread Alley and the earliest visual record of Young’s seminal mural installation. Beginning at 11:00 in the film, a young boy is seen walking amidst the artist’s initial work at Goodbread Alley. It was this blank concrete canvas of empty storefronts, 20 feet high and two blocks long that would eventually launch Young into the collective art consciousness worldwide.
The film can be found here in its entirety below:
They are the rarest of the rare. The masterworks of Goodbread Alley. And in these survivors of what others tried to destroy, the unforgettable fire of Young’s earliest prolific output continues shine brightly in this collection from Miami’s early 1970’s arrival on the cultural map.
Constructed after learning of the “Freedom Walls” created by artists in Detroit and Chicago, Young’s ad hoc installation stretched for blocks for all the world to see. And though most of the paintings were eventually destroyed by redevelopment agencies, savvy collectors managed to save a small number of works. It is estimated less than 100 works from Young’s Magnum Opus survive today.
