Yes, today is Tony's birthday. born August 4th, 1931 in Chicago. He is still missed by many, thanks to this blog some old friends contact me and tell their stories, share their memories.
These two painting are in Sharon's house, in Chloride,Arizona: a tear running down a cheek and a rusted pan with with some harlequins. Tony sometimes just needed to paint and then what ever material he found he would paint on it. I am glad these works are still around.
This is little Indian panting done in Chloride for a good friend of Tony living there. The family takes good care of the work and takes pride in the work. Regularly, I am asked whether I can help with selling a painting or whether I know the venues. I am good at many things but I am definitly not a salesperson. I do not know the market situation in the US and in Europe I learned that a person will fall in love with a piece and will have to have it at any price. Those are extremely rare and far between. The others who 'like', 'adore', even 'admire' Tony's work want you to give it away for free. I spend money on keeping the collection in good shape and for moving paintings for occasional shows. I want the work to be seen and hence the blog. I am no help at selling Tony's work. I wish all of you good luck and let me know the result of your efforts. Tony was a contrarian, so he skillfully maneuvered himself out of the mainstream until he became a a cult figure for a select band of followers. He is among the great painters of last century but never was part of the established art scene.
Chloride would drive Tony into a frenzy. This painting is proof of that. On a dark stormy night, rain gushing down, he got 'restless', 'crazy', 'anxious'. What the feeling was that would grab hold of him at those times. He tore out a piece of boarded fence and painted these Indians, which he gave away the same night to Ken F. Some people he took to immediately, like to you Bret. Talking and listening, joking on the back porch were good and cherished moments. I too learned from you, your voice and turning on the preacher as a demonstration... I hope you are well. If you post a comment with your e-mail, I'll reply to you and then erase the comment to keep your mail private. I hope that works for you.
This gentle 1993 pen and ink drawing washed with water is done in Chloride. Tony must have been in a melancholic mood. He often was. He craved recognition as a great artist - which he is in my mind - yet never got the breakthrough other, sometimes less interesting, artists made. Doug Lyon would come and visit us in Chloride every time we were there and he would bring Jeffrey. It were good and happy times. Doug would also slip Tony some money when it was obvious we were 'impecunious and without funds'. Thanks again.
This small oil (about 45 cm by 35) Tony painted in Chloride in the early nineties. The misty figure with the white hair is Mr Mafia himself and the dark haired lady, well just me. Tony regularly did whimsical portraits and this, almost abstract, is a rather gentle one.
If one grows old or if one doesn't, there is always unfinished business. So is this drawing of us waking up in the morning sun in Chloride. The drawing is hanging framed in the room where we did wake up: The bed, the embrace, the blues in the room and sometimes in our souls and the window with the glorious morning sun.
Tony used to do a lot of mural: cantinas in Mexico, chapels, homes, schools, even the University of Latin America accross the street of Diego Rivera...
In this third drawing of the series of three, Tony shows a few telltale details of the constructions in the old pueblo's. The three generations, the maiden with her typical hairdo, the old woman and the grandchild express a continuity of culture. In the background he drew the Arizona canyons he loved. If I remember correctly these three drawings stem from 1998, after his last summer in Chloride.
Indeed did I ask everybody who really knew Tony to write down their testimony of him. Here Daisy expresses the difficulty to catch Tony in one short story: With Tony there was no in between; it was love or total indifference. We were lucky it clicked immediately. We were received with grand hospitality in the "cornerhouse" in Hoboken: he would explain at length why on a canvas the sun was painted just there and not in another spot. He had an angel's patience in working with Sara on a big piece of paper and her drawing apples upside down which tot Tony was quite ok. I remember making music with the weirdest instruments...
Our bed was made (thanks Annmarie), we got the tour of the town and were introduced to the other inhabitants. In the evening in the rocking chairs we enjoyed the endless starry sky; sometimes softly talking, sometimes just watching quiet as a mouse. With truck to the Hualapai reservation, driving to Oatman, buying a cowboy hat for Sara so that he could be a real cowgirl. A person hasn't died when he is remembered and Tony's name is often heard in our home. Last year we were painting a wall in our living room and the paint kept not taking to wall. So we bought another color and everything was fine. My husband said to each other: Tony mustn't have liked the color... Or when the electricity acts up, we know we have to think again... I I'll forever be gratefull for the fact that he gave me a wonderful friend, his wife...
Op bezoek in Chloride:
Vorig jaar schilderden we een muur van onze living... de verf brokkelde steeds af...Marc ging een andere kleur halen, die bleef direct...al lachend was ons oordeel: Tony zal dat vorig kleurtje niet goed gevonden hebben.
This lovely drawing was painted in Chloride, Arizona in 1990. The left corner is a selfportrait and in that period a lady called Gina would come by once in a while. Maybe it was after one of these visits that he felt like a king... Who knows. Fact is that during a period he did a lot of blue paintings. Hue Webb a sculptor did make the comment later to me that Tony did only blue paintings. My guess is that he had run out of other colors. It had happened before in his life.
