Token unpaid

From the same series of the dentist. He was actually a friend and a student. For years Tony and the dentist worked together: Tony teaching and the student learning and doing his thing. I am not sure about the text: Token unpaid dead growing. Tony could have meant debt, but then he was also pretty sick in that period. See the blue eye... it makes me smile.

From the bottom of a soul

Having motivated some of Tony's friends to send me their pictures I find some heart warming surprises. This double mixed media stems from 1991 and speaks of our young budding love. I had never seen the drawing. When Tony arrived '91 it was to have some dental work done and this work has its home in 'the dentist's collection'... A ticket to Europe was cheaper than the dental work in the US. The full text reads from the bottom of a soul a stand of forever. Nice to be reminded one was loved.

Unicorn

Yesterdays post ended that 'the artist' was Tony's default personality. Here you see The Unicorn in the La Brea Gallery in Las Vegas with Tony and the owner of the gallery Ed. That show lead to long articles with plenty of color photographs in two Las Vegas newspapers: The Nevadan, September 28 1986 with as a title: Tony Mafia, A brilliant vagabond sets up in North Las Vegas and at the front Page: Artist Tony Mafia is fervent apostle of the abstract. The second is the Las Vegas Review Journal, September 30. August 28 also in 1986, the Las Vegas Sun ran a major article. It gives a decent biography and talks also about Tony's plans... In that period he became a kind of celebrity and got into trouble with the Minotaur Gallery about Salvador Dali's signature and about a Roy Nieman seascape... Those stories maybe are better left untold.

Indianess

This portrait was a quick watercolor and ink, brush and pen, done in June 1981 in Antwerp. Note the Thunderbird in the medallion down left and the chocker and suggestion of a breastplate. Tony wore a chocker once in while, yet I could not locate any pictures. But then sometimes he would put on warpaint on his face and chest with ... shaving foam. With his mixed heritage he often felt like being on the fence. In these moods he would choose 'being an artist' as the overriding identity.

Indians

As far as I can tell, these Indians stem from Los Angeles, probably 1986. It is one of the found pictures in Tony's old trailer. Any additional info is welcome.

Fuck death

Yes that is the title of this selfportrait from 1984. It was not a good year in his life, but he produced beautiful, powerful work. He represented death often as a pale rider, a pale woman, or in the traditional way as a skull and bones skeleton. I guess you all can read the text.
Tony could have a withdrawn, worn out look. Many people underestimated the pain, emotional, psychological and physical that his hypersensitive nature and heart disease caused him. He used all he encountered in his art. A word, a gesture could bring it all on. Sometimes taking a valium helped, sometimes not.

Antwerp etching and poem

The streets of Saturday noon, sing
the joys of a Friday’s night’s eternity;
they sing of happiness so well hidden,
the joy of living must be, the you never
to be known, never shown to those, who
cannot see what a Saturday trodden street
has known.

See, he walks with a child sired from
the loins of a chosen you, the songs of
Solomon sang saying: chosen you, while
still the stilled voices once sang the same
song, singing as the yarmulke of youth
covers the head of an ageing pious yester-
day hard lived.

Yet, they still know you, by your down-
cast eyes shading your vision, so you will
not wander from your own God, your
One God.

In Dutch:
De straten van zaterdag noen, zingen
de vreugde van een vrijdagnachtse eeuwigheid,
zij zingen van geluk zo goed verborgen
dat de vreugde te leven moet zijn, het nooit
geweten jij, nooit getoond aan hen, die
niet zien kunnen wat een ‘s zaterdags bewandelde straat
wist.

Kijk, hij wandelt met een kind verwekt uit
de lenden van een uitverkoren jij, het lied
van Salomon zong zeggend: uitverkoren jij, terwijl
steeds de verstilde stemmen ooit hetzelfde
lied zongen, zingend wijl de yarmulka van de jeugd
het hoofd bedekt van een ouder wordend vroom geweeste-
dag hard geleefd.

Echter, zij herkennen je nog, aan je neer-
geslagen ogen beschaduwend je blik, zodat je
niet dwaal van je eigen God, je
Ene God .

Jump

Jump to reach an high place ---- space. Well if that isn't a strong message in a delicate, to somebody who sometimes wavers. Reach as high as you can. Be the best you can. That is the message of this drawing. Tony did it when painting, playing the guitar or banjo or when listening to someone. Not in other aspects of his life, then he would bolt and run away from problems.

Peace

The price of peace is knowledge unhad by men of government it seems... is what Tony Mafia wrote on the back of this painting. On the day of bombspotting he would like to show this. He did not approve of nuclear weapons and believed in equality of people. He felt that beauty could create awareness, open eyes. May this painting which was a protest against the Vietnam war, painted in 1970, still move you.

By the way, in the early seventies I bought this painting for 15.000 Belgian franks. I only made 9.000 franks per month, had a toddler and a husband who went to university... The things we do.

The bather

The Bather, an oil on canvas from 1998, is hanging since 2004 in the seat of the district of Hoboken in the office of the district's president. This compares to a mayor's office in a 30.000 people town. It is a strange, kind, a bit otherworldly painting. Tony loved Hoboken. He had his routine there and his friends. He knew where to get breakfast and lunch and good second hand stuff... He also loved this particular painting with the subtle hues of blues and purples broken up by tenter pinks and sensuous red. The standing figure seem to be given a blessing or accepting an offering. If you ask in Broydengorgh Castle, they'll let you in the office, although you can see The Bather from the hall. They may still have a few catalogs... ask for them.

Installations

Often Tony would do an installation, also called an 'environmental'. These usually started with a painting and then he extended it onto the floor with carpets, or small furniture. Often a fishbowl or fruit bowl would be part of it. These installations mostly did not survive: the goldfish died, people moved and didn't find the right spot to reinstall the painting. This picture was found in the trailer and I do not know who owns the painting. I am pretty sure it is in the USA.

Politicians

On a train - see the coupe? - eavesdropping on the conversation of two very conservative Christian politicians Tony did this fast pen and ink drawing. 'You can tell by the color of his tongue and the smell of his breath GR - - -' Two things this shows us: One that Tony Mafia was dyslexic and couldn't spell right. Two that he had a strong passion in him against callous, cold, conservative politics. Rush Limbaugh, for those who don't know him : the ultra conservative ugly radio talk host, was one of Tony's pet peeves. The drawing probably is from 1996.

Olivette, Hugo van Montfrans

Olivette was the stage name of artist and female impersonator and friend of Tony who introduced Hugo van Montfrans to me. Hugo was also a good puppeteer, and did puppet shows for children. The 'objects insolite' Hugo made were intriguing and fun. They liked each other in a strange competitive way. The text of Madame Arthur is Hey Hugo, we care. We all did, we all still do.

The cross

Here you see how Tony Mafia crucified a car, cars being the last tabu. The picture is from the poster inviting for the exhibition in 'De Herk' in De Reynderstraat in Antwerp running from October 13 till November 8 in 1983. There were articles in several newspapers then, but I haven't been able to find them. The face is an old water kettle. Crankshafts, utensils, a motor block, everything minus the kitchensink went into this crucifiction which stands about two meter high. The halo is a rear view mirror. The sculpture first stood for a while in café 'De Linde' in Antwerp, then it moved to a castle in Portugal.

Black Sun Town

Tony's Indian name was Black Sun, so Black Sun Town is Chloride. He loved the town dearly and it drove him to despair. He saw the beauty and harshness of life there. The little book of which this pen and ink drawing is the cover describes in XII cycles what Chloride is about. Tony loved his small pen and ink drawings and he often scribbled a text with it. This one reads: For you I will bring the sun to the highest heaven and dance in happiness with you.

Preparations

This is a picture from the Hoboken Retrospective in the Broydenborgh Castle. The show ran from November 2003 till January 2004. A lot of work goes into putting together a show. The curator for the city of Antwerp was Mr Verplanke. Together with Tony's old gallery owner Bart Van Elzen. Both drawings you see here made the mark and were shown.

From the net

This drawing stems from Chloride, oil and pastel; the date says 1998. I have never seen this one before, so I wonder who had it. I like the white sun or moon and the three figures... Anybody out there to hare how he or she came across the drawing?

End of the Trail

The end of the Trail, a small oil painting, was used as the invitation to a Show at Leonhard's Fine Arts Gallery in the nineties and was sold to another gallery owner in the center of Antwerp. The sadder Native American themed paintings usually stemmed from thinking about the Trail of Tears of the Cherokee. Look at the texture of the paint and find the lizard... Also see the people walking in red, walking the red road.

Indian pot

This little oil on board 17 cm by 8 cm represents an Indian woman with a pot. Tony loved to do these whimsical landscapes. He seldom painted on hardboard, only when he had run out of everything else. He would be rich one day, spend all his money and be poor for the next couple of month. He has exchanged a mural for Porsche, an oil painting for a Suzuki Samurai, a drawing for a bag of groceries, for a meal in a restaurant... He has busked in the street to get 149 franks for a meal in Het Hofke. Yet every drawing he did was done with full intensity.

Two suns

In this oil painting from 1996 you see three Indian old ones'', 'elders' small and see through in the landscape. That is Tony's mythical side. The two suns encompass both worlds, this one and the one invisible to most of us.

50

I was requested to show a picture of Tony once in a while. Here he must have been 50. I remember a bunch of friends of his came together for a birthday party: He hated it. They were all old people he scolded and took off. Some of us weren't even 35 at the time.

Lithograph

Luckily a friend and an admirer of Tony Mafia's work, send me pictures they find on the net. Most then come from e-bay. I don't know who owned them and why they are selling, nor who is buying. This seems to be a lithograph, Tony was into that for a while, from 1974. I can't read the number nor the full title he gave to this work. The last three words are 'to a lady'. If any of you has one of these lithographs please send in the full title. Thanks.

My wish was granted: The name of the lithograph is Variation 1928 Lady. The number of the limited edition is 19/23, it might be a silkscreen. Tony always signed in pencil, so is this one.

Unfinnished painting

Tony would start a canvas or a drawing and leave it on the easel when we would leave Chloride for Hoboken or the other way around. This one never got finished. But in a way it just gives a lot of space to dream. It gives you a change to finish it. It also shows how he would start with a big movement and put the general idea down. Yet whenever a piece of work was left in one or other stage, he would always see to it that it had balance.