 |
At an artist evening at our old place in Hoboken probably in 1998 this picture was taken. Today would is a good day to celebrate his life since it is his birthday... Remember him!
This hippie couple probably dates from the late sixties/early seventies and was more than probably painted in Los Angeles. The blond lady must have been Ann, his then wife. Flower power rules in this painting. Good message.
Well here is Pan and a nymph in action. As far as I can tell it is an oil from the sixties. Figurative but with hidden figures and areas of abstractions. Enjoy.
In this picture taken in Montellano, Spain, Tony is looking at a master guitar builder making his guitar. Tony loved all the arts and was good in several of them. In May this year 10 years will have passed since his demise. A Dutch poet Hannie Rouweler took the initiative to compose a Tribute to Tony. She asked five Dutch and five Flemish poets to write a poem inspired by Tony's work, or as the case may be by Tony himself. On the link you can click and then you'll see the front and back cover and you can read a series of comments on the different poems written for this publication. Also you can order the book or download it through that website. Obviously it is a bilingual publication with a beautiful lay out and great and thoughtful poetry. I thank Hannie for the initiative, John Irons for the help with the English translations and all the poets for their honest and thoughtful, beautiful poems.
The peasant couple reveling in the foreground contrasting the elegance of the two dancers in the background: this could be a painting about the clash of harsh reality and art, about expectations and dreams, about love, lust and tenderness. Tony Mafia also could have just met them on the cobblestoned streets in Antwerp in 1999, came home and painted what he felt and saw. Note the abstract paintings in the background, the meeting could have been in a gallery and the art critic took the lady home...
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.
Two charcoal drawing, obviously not on the same material and at the same time, showing two toreadors and their loved one. Strength, sadness and gentleness are in these drawings. He would in differnt ways return to the bullfights. it was probably the dance of life and death and the esthetics of eros and thanatos that drew him.
Old paintings is from 1989. Since he used the theme of an apple and a butterfly in some writing , I guess that is why he called it old painting. He might have found it in a stack and finished it... The lyrics around the painting say: It is brave a butterfly cann be happy in love with an apple and both of you I love... In the selfportrait Tony wrote about himself: I wait for my apple to hide in and will fall in love with a butterfly.
This 1991 painting hangs in my room along with another tony piece. Note the old frame that this piece is set in. As I remember, granted I was much younger than I am now, Tony was one that would take an old frame and paint over it, then set one of his pieces in it. The Words LA FOU are written in the left corner. I assume that is where it was painted but I could be wrong. I love this piece of artwork as every time I look at it I find some thing else. For example the word LOVE certainly is visible to your eyes, but it took me some time to see just to the left of it there was another word TO. This is another from my fathers collection.
