Buffalo Two Canvas KO

on) Sisti (1901-1983) was renowned for his work on two different types of canvas. Initially, he was noted Tfor his athletic abilities in the ring as a Bantamweight boxer and shortly afterward as a first-rate painter. He used the e rungs from his boxing career to fund his art school train~g and soon garnered significant recognition in both elds. As the recent subject of an exhibition at the Burc eld Penney Art Center, Sisti's artistic legacy and his numerous cultural contributions to this region are worthy of examination and preservation. Although he is well known for his bo subjects and for portraiture, the artist boasted that he ".. anything that light falls on." My earliest memories of Tony Sisti apparently they looked and acted differ- occurred during my childhood in Niag- ently from the rest of us. Monsignor had ara Falls, NY. I was raised in a house that been an accomplished amateur artist had once been the convent for the nuns .himself and he influenced his nephew at at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church an early age, encouraging the young man located at 15th Street and Pine Avenue, to copy his own drawings. the heart of the city's "Little Italy." The My siblings and I attended St.Joseph's diocese had built a new convent for the grammar school around the corner from Sisters directly across from their gram- our house and every morning we walked mar school and my mother and father past a portrait of Monsignor on our took ownership of the large three-story ascent up the stairs to the awaiting class- home before I was born. rooms. This daily greeting of the pastor's Monsignor Pascal Tronolone was the protective and welcoming painted visage Pastor of the church and was also our made a lasting impression on me. It neighbor. On one occasion, I noticed a wasn't until many years later that my sis- short, unusual looking man speaking ter pointed out that the portrait that I intently with Monsignor. He was wear- walked past so many times had actually ing a black beret on his head and the two been painted by Tony Sisti. men seemed to be engaged in some spir- Fast forward to the present and I am ited discussion. When I asked my currently living in Seattle, Washington mother who the stranger was and why he and like Mr. Sisti, I own, or more accu- was wearing a funny hat, she informed rately co-own, an art gallery which is me that the man was Monsignor's now in its 20th year. When my partner nephew, Tony Sisti, and that he was a Dominic Zambito and I moved to Seat- "Benito Mussolini.' 1930, ink sketch, dr<r:,~ from life in the Colesseum in Rome. Origirc· famous artist. That became my first cog- tle in 1986, the time had come to realize published in the Buffalo Times Rotogra'.".::-e nizant realization that artists existed and my lifelong dream of operating my own section, undated. AUTHOR'S COLLECT!: Sisti, at right in knickers, likely at one of the marble quarries near Carrara, Italy, C. 1927. AUTHOR'S COLLEC-: what a great and underappreciated artist Sisti really was. We made an appointment to see his collection that was stored away in the stacks of the BP and later visited his daughter Marlene to observe her collection. This was a revelation to me. Over the years I have visited innumerable museums and read countless books on American art of the Depression-era. Having done a great deal of research on this period and with some publications under my belt, I was confident that my aesthetic opinions were rational and held some degree of merit. To say that I was overwhelmed with the quality of Sisti's work is an understatement. Western New York places a strong empha- sis on Charles Burchfield and rightfully so. But the lesser atten- tion reserved for his local contemporaries underestimates the region's cultural contributions to American art. I believe that his work would most certainly be welcomed once again into national exhibitions, publications and studies by art historians if they were simply informed and had some exposure to his major works. With this in mind, I set out to study the art and life of this tal- ented man whom I now believe to be among the most interest- ing artists ever active in Western New York. With proper positioning and exposure, his reputation could and should be elevated to a national level. Anthony Sisti was born on April 25, 1901 on Sullivan Street in Greenwich Village, the artistic and bohemian heart of New York City. He moved with his family to Buffalo at the age of 10 "Jack Johnson:' c. 1928. The former Heavyweight champion signed where his advanced drawing abilities were noticed by one of his the sketch, "Tomy pal Tony Sisti from former Champion Jack Johnson, November 20, 1936." Originally published in the Buffalo Times teachers at School 2. This educator, whose name is now Rotogravure section, undated. AUTHOR'S COLLECTION unknown, arranged for weekly Saturday art classes for his stu- dent, but after a while the energetic youth preferred the street gallery, but unlike Sisti, I had no ability to create art myself activities of his fellow adolescents to the discipline of the art class. Instead, I would research, support and promote those artists At the age of 15, he began to participate in local amateur box- who were active in the early 20th century from the two regions ing matches where he honed his skills and advanced his athletic with which I most identified: Western New York and Seattle. I abilities. By 1918, he had a substantial number of fights to his began to realize that not all great artists of the recent past were credit and won the Western New York Amateur Bantamweight famous or had familiar names. For many varied reasons, some championship. produced great work but never became recognized outside of By the age of 23, Sisti was married to Carmella Leone and their region while others attained an exalted position in the was also supporting their daughter while balancing his boxing socially-based hierarchy of artistic reputation. Helping to keep and art careers. For extra income he worked as a truck driver such deserving artists alive in the public memory became my during the day while attending the Albright Art School at night. missron, In 1925, Sisti went to Europe to attend the Florence This past summer, the Burchfield Penney Art Center mounted Academy studying under Felice Carena (1879-1966), a promi- an exhibition titled "Tony Sisti: A Forgotten Regionalist" featuring nent Italian painter of the period. During his European stay, he a selection of his paintings and drawings. This was an attempt to augmented his studies by attending both the Acadimie de fa remedy the situation stated so clearly in the title of their show. To Grande Chaumiere and the Acadimie Julian in Paris as well as the the credit of the museum, they held their first Sisti exhibition in Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. 1979 while the artist was alive and healthy enough to enjoy the While in Europe, he continued boxing to supplement his recognition. income and met future World Heavyweight Champion Primo I have to admit that I initially did not hold Sisti's reputation Camera (1906-1967). He hired Camera as a model (at 25 cents in very high esteem. But then, how could I when my exposure an hour) and produced several portraits and studies of the impos- to his art was so limited? This began to change when I was taken ing young man. During his time in Paris, Sisti also met the leg- to task by my friend Charles Petrozzi, one of the prescient col- endary Jack Johnson (1878-1946), the first black World lectors of Western New York regional art whose opinion I highly Heavyweight Champion, whose life inspired the play and film, respect. On one of my yearly summer visits he decided to show me "The Great White Hope:' Sisti said of Johnson ... "This man who 46 never went beyond grade school, had a real taste for art. We used to go to the Louvre together betweenfights and '[obnson amazed me with his knowledge and appreciation of art. He had the polish of a collegeprofessor." Johnson would later visit Sisti's studio in Buffalo in 1936. By 1929, he purportedly earned a Doctoral Degree in art from the Academy in Florence and continued to paint and sketch, traveling to Africa, Manchuria, Morocco and the Philippines. That same year, Sisti sketched from life the inventor Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) and the followingyearproduced two portraits from life ofll Duce himself, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). After returning to Buffalo, Sisti set up StudyforFrozenAssets (#1), c. 1926, graphite on paper, 11Y2 x 17% inches. a studio at 1139 Main St. where he COLLECTION, BURCHFIELD PENNEY ART CENTER, GIFT OF TONY SISTI, 1979:071.000. maintained his athletic interests by set- Thecompletedoilpaintingappeared onthe coverof Western New York Heritage, Winter2002. ting up a punching bag platform near his knowing what the performance of a dis- easel for daily workouts between paint- knows his fundamental drawing and draftsmanship. He is ready to understand torted line or distorted colorshould be. The ing. In 1930, one of his paintings was artist, for any picture realistic or abstract, accepted in the prestigious Carnegie how distortion- which is shocking a person must start from life." Institute's Annual of American Art in by one line or by one coloragainst another- can be used..

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