Trail of tears

Nunna daul Isunyi

High mountans over the land of our fathers

were good to die

1838 Tears from my people

Singing "Amazig Grace" untill the end.

Saving the native future on the way to Oklahoma

Tony was partial Cherokee on his fathers side and was interested in all things Native American. His brother Bill found in Blythe,California a bunch of black and white pottery shards, older than black and white shards known before. He often felt unaccepted by other Native Americans, being rather fair skinned. He cherished his history however. This painting is a mixed medium: oil and pastels. He has done many other paintings about The trail of Tears. This wonderful drawing is in Antwerp, other pieces are in the USA.

Tony Mafia

Antwerpen 1983

Love

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.

Fuq hate

'Fuq Hate' and 'Love' in the background, I guess this qualifies as a political painting. It must still have been in the Vietnam war years. Note also the typical fish on the head. Tony used to put them in many paintings. I am not sure whether there was a Christian connotation or not. Enjoy the gentle colors and the sure lines.

Peace

On this Easter day, may there be a resurrection of peace. Tony did this small Chinese ink wash and drawing in the sixties... His message still holds.

The flag

Tony was seen as many things, always as an American, also when he didn't agree with some of the war mongering that went on during his life. I would like to paraphrase Pascal Mercier: The stories that others tell about one and the stories one tells about oneself: which ones come nearer to the truth? Is it clear that it are our own ones? Is some one for oneself an authority? Or is the real question whether there is a difference between true or false? Is the soul a place of facts? Most information I pass on are the stories as told me by Tony, as I heard them. If I checked for dates or places, he would get angry. He then felt hemmed in. Some stories I tell are mine because I lived them with him, but I also lived the stories as he told them... The drawing is a monoprint with pastel and problably from 1970.

Out of step with the band

Tony and I felt usually out of step, out of sync with the two worlds we were living in. I think that Obama Barack's victory would have really pleased Tony Mafia. He was a democrat at heart and a member of the party and had been at the first march between Selma en Montgomery. He told me about the German shepherds chasing the people. I wonder what he would have painted about this feeling of relief. I am sure he would feel even more patiotic now. The painting from 1997 was shown in Leonhard's and Lineart in 1998.

Painting the dance

This too is older work: 1974. Tony returned often to the theme of dance since it gave him a freedom in movement and costume. Here it is rather abstract or iconic. Interestingly there is the paintbrush on the right hand side... This is a self-referential detail so we know who looked and painted: Tony Mafia.

The press

For those who read Danish, an article from 1970. You'll find some of the names of famous owners of Tony's work and some information about his life and work. Tony had a dual relationship with the press: he enjoyed the attention but felt they should not write about the man -although he was flattered and needed to be liked- but the articles should be about the work. As you can tell in full Vietnam war, he did drawings about peace and never soft on his words his message still is: Fuck Hate!

Vote!

If you had any doubts of where Tony stood: he was a registered democrat, sending some money once in while out of his often meager income. He would want you all to get involved and be active in the present election campaign. He would make fun of 'stupid' politicians and their Wienerschnitzel actions. He marched in the first civil rights march in Selma and didn't like to be chased by vicious police dogs... Yes I guess Tony would want the troops home now. He was not a draft dodger and has been in the Air Force.

Poison

Tony didn't really recycle, yet he cared deeply about all things natural being killed by big industry, be it logging or because of pollution. This drawing stems from 199g, a while after a company had discharged some poisonous material. Note the stretcher, note the dying animals - was he forefeeling his own demise? This drawing is the only one in which you will find a car!!

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 .

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.

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.

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.

The tearful eye of God

The Tearful Eye of God is the name Tony gave this large painting. God crying because of the state of the world, the state humanity is in. It hangs on the third floor in a public area of the European Parliament. it is large and even a bit larger than what I could get on the picture. it is the only painting by a non European in the collection of the European Parliament. I love how Tony painted his own red boots...

Music

Spain and flamenco were returning subjects in Tony's work. This is a detail from a larger painting which you can view in full at the third floor in the Altiero Spinelli building of the European Parliament. Note the crying guitar player. He is just as god crying about the state of the world. Note the figure leaning in to the guitar, caressing, cradling it with body and soul. That is was music can do. In 1995 he got a very delicate guitar in Montellano, near Seville. When we heard some gypsies play near the church of the Crying Madonna the evening we brought her back, he decided to call the guitar just that. I believe he honored the delicate crying Madonna guitar in this flamenco player. The canvas was one to which he would return often, changing it sometimes drastically. He started it in 1995, worked on it in 1998 and May 1999. The last paint Tony spread was red on a tiny brush on this canvas.

Pale warrior

Tony's father was Indian. Tony traced it as Onondaga Cherokee: North Eastern Cherokee. He was proud of this heritage as being part of one of the five civilized tribes. Of course his mother was 'mixed European'. He was fair skinned, as a kid had black but curly hair and dark eyes and an elongated face with high and pronounced cheekbones. He used to tell the story that when he was in the Indian orphanage in Lawrence Hall for Boys the 'do-gooder' ladies would come by and sometimes whisper among themselves to end up pointing at him saying: "See that light one, he could be one of us". That haunted him the rest of his life. This painting is about him being a pale warrior, after some unpleasant remarks by Indians and by non-Indians. Here he claims his place: Wait pale warrior waiting. Then a space and the message goes on: Accept me.
That probably was about his painting.

Dead Horse and the Whore's Fair

Dead horses and the Whore's Fair or did he mean fare? It is a large oil on canvas (155 x 130 cm) painted in 1998, shown at Lineart Ghent. Tony Mafia remembered selling a painting with the title 'The Whore's Fair' to a lawyers collective (probably in Los Angeles) who later sold it for a lot of money. He felt it was one of his exceptional paintings.
In the painting shown here themes and techniques join in order to speak out about the state of the world. Every one pays the fare at the whore's fair, one pays to and for power. Dead horses, battles, riders and banners, thunder and lightning while the whore caresses a toy horse. A prostitute and her customer - maybe two lovers? - sleep in the foreground. Dead and destruction while the painter in the right hand corner upholds a small painting full of intimate light. That might just symbolize the usefulness of art.

American Girl

With a little help of my kid, the Girl with the Jet black Hair and a Bow in her Hair, the painting Carol Levin loves so dearly, finds her way to the world. See yesterday's post.
Tony did paint several peace paintings in that dreadful period of the Vietnam war and later once in a while something would get to him and then had to paint about it. Tony was a registered democrat and cared about nature and the environment. Since he was a keen fisherman, he spend time in the wilderness and remote spaces. He was also a patriot: every time Tony's British friend and musician Dave Betts showed up, they had to recount the Boston Tea party. "We won", was always the conclusion in his typical Mafia way.