Red Egg

Tony, by many, is seen as an always happy camper. He was not: he was troubled, fearful and often severely depressed. Not being a saint, I was often over the brink of exhaustion and exasperated. Tony saw a shrink, who once told me: you could walk on foot to Scherpenheuvel and walk three times around the basilica, and still you couldn't do things right for him... He felt it as a load to be called a genius and to have to suffer the 'consequences' while others happily and carelessly went about their life. Sometimes he would long for a God, for divine intervention, but could not really believe. This 1997 painting, actually two self-portraits and a text presented as a tryptic, was shown at his Retrospective in Hoboken. Red Egg is a clear expression of such a mood.

The Rain

It has been raining constantly and heavy. That happens once in a while here in Belgium. Sometimes it leads to flooding field and houses. This happened to our house in Hoboken, in autumn 1998. (He had to go in the house and safe our two Brussels Griffons who were on top of a floating armchair). Being hypersensitive, the weather and events around influenced Tony. His images and subjects where always in one way or another connected to his life. They also were a bid for immortality. Under my reign is one of such paintings. Of course he always allows in his canvasses for an escape, a resting place. We talked long whether it had to be 'Under my rain' or not... By the way, there is a double portrait in here of Tony and myself, hidden in the masses.

On the road

Tony enjoyed being on the road. He would take his guitar and his brushes and could survive that way. I am on the road now. Give me a few days and I'll be back. I choose a small etching done in 1984 because sometimes he would sell those while traveling. A few times a bunch of friends gathered money to buy an etching press for Tony in exchange for a set of prints... This is one of those.

The Cabaret

It would happen that Tony had to paint. Many have noticed that. He would get agitated and nervous and only painting or playing the guitar would help. In those instances he used anything to work on: heavy cotton, boards, napkins. I wonder how many of the napkins he gave away are still around. It would suffice that somebody noticed him working and watched him work for him to give them the piece he was working on. He has regretted giving away a few extra nice pieces that didn't get the respect they deserved. An example? Tony carefully hands over a beautiful nude, rather large and the guy just folds it and crumples it in his coat pocket. He later tells us he hung the drawing in his bedroom but that his wife felt intimidated by it and destroyed it... The Cabaret is on cotton primed with a green flat paint and nailed to some fence boards picked up in the desert, probably done in 1994.

Least he be judged

Yesterday's comment was right on: Tony did not want to be judged. When in his private live things got muddled he held up a painting in self-defense. One sees that gesture in several of his works. In his self-portraits he also often surrounded himself with his canvasses. In this painting he portrays himself without frills as a small, vulnerable man, at home on his slippers, dancing as he would in front of the canvas. Here he combines frailty, being Indian and an artist and a husband. This painting still breaks my heart as much as it makes me smile. The honesty of his work is part of what makes it great, yet we should not forget it is a self-definition: showing whom he was and how he wanted to be seen. Tony named this canvas: Paintdance for Annmarie, painted December 6, 1997.

The art critic

I wrote before that Tony didn't cherish art critics. Here the art critic is shown as the emperor without clothes contemplating paintings in a gallery, signed Tony Mafia. In the later period of his painting and life he often painted paintings in a painting. I knew he usually like big canvasses. So I asked one day why he did this kind of cutting up of the space he had at his disposal. His answer was: I won't have time to paint them all. I guess he thought them too intellectual, too much part of creating the establishment, not really being creative but judgmental. I like the strange forced perspective, the painted sculptings and the flat and three dimentional figure. I would call this a humorist's painting, a naughty child's superior prank.

The Horse

Tony used to say he was the fastest brush of the West... yet some paintings he would go over and over again. The horse is one of those. It was first a carousel horse with children and after many changes, using part of what was there, it became this Chagalesque canvas. Sometimes he would change a painting because it was too easy, too sweet, too decorative. He would be offended by the fact that people would imply that he painted in the style of Chagal... He saw the similarities but had been doing the dancing figures in the sky and the strange color animals before he had seen a Chagal. The horse was painted and signed in Antwerp in 1982 and the vet is the proud owner of it. See how the lady hides the carousel horse and how the skull and the fear of death is in the harlequin's despairing hands?

Chaotic life

This double piece, with a double portrait and Indian iconography, was bought by Frans Schraeven from Tilburg in Holland, through a friend of us. I had never seen the piece since Tony painted it while I was in hospital early 1992. It is a wonderful testimony to our chaotic life. I recognize Tony's different ways of representing me... Also see the signature 'Black Sun' in the painting. He painted in Antwerp January 92... Tony often put different pieces of paper together, reaching for a different size and shape.

Does anyone know?

There are many drawings and paintings of Tony out there: love, lost, acquired, received as a gift, lost again and found by someone who cares. This is one of those paintings. Zan, the proud owner, would like to know more about it, can anybody help him/her out? he tells me the canvas isn't in good shape and suspect it to be fairly old. As far as I can tell, I think it stems from the late fifties. In that period he lived on and off in Tijuana and Frank Sinatra asked his chauffeur George to go and find Tony and bring his portfolio. Tony told me Sinatra owned about 17 of his drawings and gave two to Queen Elizabeth when he was received at her palace. The painting has a clear Mexican iconography. It could be early sixties, briefly after he met his Danish wife, if the one female with the sleek hair has blue eyes. My bet is however on his Mexican period. I love the little sun and of course the telltale Tony flower.

Hoboken Nights

Tony and I held for several years something known as 'Hoboken Nights'. Josée in the post before refers to them. Tony didn't belong to the establishment, although he had usually one or two avid collectors. he liked to share his work and craved recognition. At the Hoboken Nights everybody who was active in the arts was welcome. The idea was not to have an audience but to be under colleagues and to discuss paint and turpentine and colons and metaphors. Art critics were not welcome I guess. They tended to write more about the man and his fascinating lfe than about his work and Tony did not like that. The Painting above is called Zwarte Panter, the name of a well liked modern gallery. Well liked by the elite that is. So this mixed media drawing of oil and pastel on paper is part of Tony's critique of the art world. Note the double portrait in the right hand corner. Painted in Antwero, in the Kloosterstraat.

Josée's testimony

This is a post by Josée, in Dutch. One of these days I'll put in a comment, paraphrase in English for those who don't read Dutch: enjoy her irony and wild style.
Het moet ergens halfweg de jaren tachtig zijn geweest dat ik Tony Mafia en zijn echtgenote Annmarie leerde kennen De aanleiding zal wel 'gedichtjes' zijn geweest. Wie bracht ons in contact? Geen idee!!!! Maar op een keer werd ik uitgenodigd op een onderonsje van artiesten. Men wist dat ik wat rijmseltjes-zonder-rijm schreef en ik moest er maar een paar meebrengen, wat ik ook braaf deed.
Aanvankelijk voelde ik er me niet zo thuis: wat muffe burgerlijke vrijetijds artiesten. Amateurs dus. Een beetje zingen, wat gedichtjes voordragen.... Veel geleerd volk was daar verzameld. En daartussen stond ik dan als professioneel' muzikantje dat het zout op de petatten niet verdiende en op dat ogenblik niet eens een diploma hoger onderwijs had maar vooral een hekel had aan intellectuele artiesten die van zichzelf vonden dat ze bijzondere wezens waren. Ik vond het zelfs wreed ambetant dat ik als 'poweet' werd bestempeld terwijl ik feitelijk 'musicus' was.Enfin je vond er vanalles: univ-proffen, tolken, dierendokters, fotografen, gitarentokkelaars, een schyzofrene landloper enz. Sjiek volk dus.
Men sprak er alle talen, vooral Engels en soms zelfs Vlaams. Op dat ogenblik had ik nog nergens één gebenedijd woord Engels geleerd, laat staan gesproken.
Maar tussen al die vreemde wezens waren er twee die ik begreep : de hond Toots en de schilder Tony met de maffe naam en een heel klein beetje de echtgenote van Tony (dat laatste zet ik er bij om te vleien want anders wordt mijn tekst niet in het blog van Tony opgenomen).
In 1997 kreeg Toots een nest jongen waarvan ik later het meest speelse beest kreeg. Ik mocht niet kiezen.Tony zocht de puppy voor me uit. Hij wist blijkbaar perfect welk spookie het best bij me paste. En door omstandigheden werd ik een paar jaar geleden ook tot 'honden-baby-siter' gebombardeerd door Annmarie na het overlijden van haar echtgenoot die 'verzorging' nodig had voor haar kroost honden want ze was nogal veel 'in het buitenland'. Ze wou me betalen voor het verzorgen van haar monsters, maar intussen was ik een gesetteld en goedverdienend muzieklerares geworden en weigerde dan ook het geld :haar mormels betaalden wel met hun gekke snuiten. Annmarie vond dit zeer gênant. Nee niet die gekke snuiten, wel dat ik geen geld wou. En toen vond ze een oplossing die me diep in mijn vanbinnenste trof: ze zou me betalen met een tekening van Tony! Awel dat was schrikken! Ooit een echte 'Tony' in huis hebben ... nee dat kon een zelfs een rijke muzikant zich niet voorstellen.
Dus na veel hondensitten had ik de helft van de tekening 'verdiend' en mocht ik komen kiezen. Het leek me een verhaal dat niet moest onderdoen voor de beste Van Gogh mythe.
Een aantal tekening waren niet beschikbaar omdat ze een bijzondere betekenis voor Annmarie hadden en dat respecteer je natuurlijk zelfs al bloed je hart omdat er zo'n toffe dingen tussen zaten.

Ik koos dus voor een portret (volgens Annmarie vrij zeldzaam in het oeuvre van Tony). Ze vond het een goede keuze, maar ik geloof niet dat ze het meende. Ik dacht het een soort zelfportret was van Tony. Het bleek geen 'echt' portret te zijn maar een soort hybride tussen man en vrouw, wat Tony wel meer deed. Wat mij het meest intrigeerde waren de vissen in het haar en rond de hals van de Heer(lijke)-Dame. En ik die dacht dat er in heel de woestijn van Arizona geen vis te vangen viel....
De persoon heeft een blik die schuin neerwaarts is gericht en in zichzelf gekeerd is. Is de figuur droef, de wenkbrauwen doen vermoeden van wel? Of mijmert het over iets uit het verleden dat geen mens hoeft te weten? Ik gun de dubbele persoon zijn zeer persoonlijke gedachten.
Je herkent zo de stijl van Tony en toch is het koloriet bijzonder fijn, bijna pastel, en is de spontane bijna fauvistische manier waarop Tony werkte nauwelijks te vinden, tenzij in de donker blauwe achtergrond en de zelfverzekerde groene strepen waaruit het haar van de man werd getrokken en misschien ook in de cirkels die natuurlijk niet rond zijn maar als opstijgende bubbels in water lijken.

Mijn mooiste herinnering aan Tony dateert uit de tijd dat ik nauwelijks Engels sprak.
Tony was aan het schilderen in de tot atelier omgetoverde woonkamer op de Lage Weg in Hoboken waar hij toen woonde. Het doek stond op een ezel opgesteld pal in het midden van de kamer en deed de meubels verdwijnen alsof ze nooit hadden bestaan. Tony vertelde honderduit met een bijzondere bevlogenheid. Ik hoorde hem vertellen over de buffels, de paarden en de indiaanse symbolen die hij kriskras spontaan in het doek verwerkte. Heus ik heb het allemaal verstaan.

In het putteke van mijn ziel geloof ik dat Tony vanuit een voor ons niet te begrijpen dimensie mede mijn keuze heeft beïnvloed.

Bedankt Tony en Annmarie.

Respect

Fred Bervoets, a painter whom Tony respected and who respected Tony’s work, has an exhibition called ‘Welcome Home’. Their work has many points in common: the crowdedness, the difficulty in describing the style or direction. One description goes for both Tony and Fred: a narrative expressionist. Also both do a lot of self-portraits and to be honest, most of their works are autobiographical. You’ll find pain, despair, love and sex, art critics and the icons of friends and family. The main difference is their use of color. Fred goes mainly into dark somber tones while Tony uses the whole rainbow like in this mixed medium oil and pastel on paper from 1996. Here he also mixes his Indian heritage with his love of all things Spanish and his life in Mexico with the Matadora…

Tears

Tears is not easy ‘surface painting’, which is just a rendering of the appearance and can never fulfill all the exigencies of multiplicity and of unity that Tony felt he could show us in his unique crowded rendering. So his paintings are no imitations of nature, or hard etched, austere abstractions but he expresses his relationship with the piece of land and the people in it and he expresses his own feelings. These magical worlds with vision and soul, seem sometimes unacceptable to those that only can see the familiar and accepted. Of course those who know will recognize the shields and coup stick and the work done on the feathers. This is a fairly realistic rendering of a group of warriors...

The apocalypse

You have seen quite a lot of paintings owned by Arnold, our veterinarian friend. I introduced Tony and Arnold to each other late in 1981 at Tony's 50th birthday in Antwerp. After the party Arnold took him to Etienne's Musiekdoos where he MC the hootenannies for a long time. Tony had had an open heart operation I think in 1975 and had been told he had five years... My family visited Tony in 1980 in the States. After breaking up with 'Sue' he came to Antwerp. He needed a lot of expensive medication. At a certain point Tony became a very 'expensive' friend and Arnold could get him the prescriptions and some of the med's at a better price... Tony 'paid' in paintings. He has done many paintings and drawings about Death. The apocalypse depicts death as afair maiden on a unicorn...

Buffalo

In his approach, although his technique is radically different, he inscribes himself in the tradition concept of Native American abstractions. “Pictograph, petroglyphs or elk or antelope draw their magic in part from the process wherein the focus of all prayer and concentration is upon the thing itself, which in turn guides the hunters hand. Connection with the spirit dimensions requires a figure or form that is all inclusive. A realistic rendering of an elk is too restrictive. Only the elk is itself...” writes Leslie Marmon Silko And she is right. The thing itself guides the painters hand. A cave painting by Tony: Buffalo.