PAINTINGS
by
“THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL US…MAKES US STRONGER” (a/k/a: “Karen as the Mother of Rome”) ©️2023#7
By Tony Barone
48″X 48″, O/C, PRE-EXHIBITION PRICE: $30,000
“FILET MIGNON” (Pot to piss in … pot to get pissed on) ©️2023 #6
by Tony Barone
48”h x 48”, O/C … pre-exhibit price: $20,000
“MY LIFE GETS IN THE WAY OF MY LIFE” ©️2023 #5, The Money Series.
by Tony Barone
54”h x 48”, O/C … pre-exhibit price: $20,000
“ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER DOLLAR” ©️2023 #4, The Money Series.
by Tony Barone
54”h x 48”, O/C … pre-exhibit price: $30,000
“DON’T SELL OUT …AGAIN” ©️2023 #3, The Money Series.
by Tony Barone
54”h x 48”, O/C… pre-exhibit price: $20,000
“NOUVEAU RICHE” ©️2023 #2, The Money Series
by Tony Barone
54”h x 48”, O/C…… pre-exhibit price: $20,000
“ARTE POVERA” ©️2023 #1 The Money Series.
by Tony Barone
54”h x 48”, O/C…… pre-exhibit price: $20,000
“ENDANGERED SPECIES” ©️2022 #1 The Money Series.
by Tony Barone
54”h x 48”w, O/C…… PRE-EXHIBITION PRICE: $30,000
There are many issues dividing our country and ripping this nation apart… the one being addressed in this work of art is “The right to bare arms vs gun control”… Each side of this debate are deeply entrenched … this painting enters the conversation in terms of highlighting the division.
The “ENDANGERED SPECIES” is America … America is represented by the United States one dollar bill … also symbolic of the USA is the American Bald Eagle … in this painting the eagle is presented as a mythological female… part human … part bird: head of an eagle … wings for arms…
“U K R A I N E”
By Tony Barone
©️ 2022 #3, O/C, 54”h x 48”w… pre-exhibit price $20,000
Karen… the protagonist in this painting represents the people of Ukraine… she stands heroically in the manifestation of a mythological figure… half-woman/half war-machine… i.e… a tank … she emerges from a peaceful and serene field of sunflowers… the sunflower is a national symbol of Ukraine… the sunflowers appear in sharp contrast to red and yellow missile explosions which reign terror and destruction day and night … although the exploding cluster s are flowerlike … they are Russian funerary wreaths … gifts of murder and mayhem … One of two silhouettes of “Red” tanks located across the bottom of the painting … they are piloted by giant rats and are rolling over the Ukrainian people … including the children who stand defyingly hand-in-hand like paper doll cutouts … The Red jet fighter plane in the top of the painting dives down mercilessly from the sky bombing schools … hospitals … orphanages … homes … it is shown attempting to cancel-out the Ukrainians – the yellow & blue flag represented by vertical stripes to the left and right … the big bold black stripes … metaphorically a symbol of death and destruction … attempt to cover the Ukranian colors. The human tragedy and injustices being forced upon the people of Ukraine moved me to create this painting… I was reminded of Pablo Picasso’s 1937 painting … ‘Guernica”… a painting which was “an enraged cry against the absence of humanity”. Presently Karen & Tony want the artwork to be used to lessen the suffering of the courageous people of Ukraine … they want to partner with individuals … commercial entities … NGO’S … religious & charitable organizations which will utilize this art to raise the awareness of the war and its tragic circumstances … Karen & Tony would like to monetize this artwork … perhaps through reproducing it on posters … T shirts …etc… the goal being to raise money for Ukraine and its brave people … Please contact the studio of Karen & Tony Barone to bring this mission to fruition …
“RED BLACK WIDOW SPIDER” 2022#X
O/C, 48”X48”, square
In this painting TONY BARONE continues on the visual fantasy of painting his wife Karen as a mythological being… a goddess whose upper body is human … and who is a poisonous insect from the waist down… The black widow bares a bright red mark in the shape of an hourglass on its back … Tony has chosen to place this distinctive marking on the tip of Karen’s breasts … black widow spiders are well known for the fact they will occasionally eat their male partner after mating…
TONY EXPLAINS:
‘When I first met Karen I would tease that she was a femme fatale and a black widow spider… I never knew if I would return alive from our passionate encounters… So after many years of living dangerously, I decided to paint Karen in this iteration” …. Tony Barone
“NEPTUNE’S BRIDE” 2022#1
O/C, 54”X48”, rectangle
“In this painting titled ‘NEPTUNE’S BRIDE’ … karen becomes a sub-aquatic mythological siren …a seductress who is one part goddess and two parts sea creature…
PS…in the past year I have been creating works intended to be digitized & released as NFT’s… In the days before NFT CRYPTO ART … an oil-on-canvas (O/C) painting was simply “a painting” …. NOW … it’s referred to as a “hard asset”…
“NEPTUNE’S BRIDE” is a hard asset… an oil painting… not destined to be digitized or to become an NFT … it’s intended to hang on a wall and be viewed in the manner of the pre-blockchain era…
“KYOTO”, 2021 #10
O/C, 51”X48”, trapezoid
Karen and I frequently reference our love for all things Japanese: Karen in the creation of her fashion and performance art videos, and me in paintings and sculpture. I am sure our passion is fortified by our frequent visits to the distant magical East Asian island country across the Pacific.
Our BARONE shop on West Broadway in the center of SOHO in New York City was our showcase introduction to the fashion capitals of the world and Japan was one of them. Japanese women loved our BARONE Cosmetics and the “explosive colors blew them away”. Our fabulous Japanese licensee operated 10 BARONE locations in cities throughout this storybook land of tradition and ceremony. The Japanese are more sybaritic than the sybarites ever were.
“TOKYO DAZE”, 2021 #9
O/C, 51”X48”, trapezoid
“My painting “TOKYO DAZE” was inspired by Karen Barone’s early art videos created out of our Venice California canal-side studio during the waining “fin de siècle” years of the 20th century. Karen’s passionate experimental fervor had taken over the back room on the lower level of our massive 3 story studio/residence. She had jerry-rigged several electronic devices: video cameras, modern & vintage TV monitors, early photo & video transfer equipment, sound & recording units … all were stacked up and cross wired … I feared at any time the whole set up could E X P L O D E ! !” … Karen is a video performance art pioneer who in her early work would use static and glitches as creative stylistic elements in her work … In “TOKYO DAZE” I borrowed Karen’s “static and glitch” technique to deliver the abstraction I needed for this painting.” … Tony Barone
“LISBOA”, 2021 #8
O/C, 51”X48”, trapezoid
“LISBOA” is Portuguese for Lisbon and the title of my most recently completed painting. The painting expresses Karen’s absorption of the cross cultural experience of our Portuguese-Moroccan adventure.
We had arrived at the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon by rail from Madrid. It was a time traveler experience. Portugal had not kept pace with the rest of Europe in the post World War II Marshall Plan to rebuild a devastated Europe. Developmentally it was time locked in the Fin de Siècle 1890’s – everything in Portugal was old and worn … and therein lies it’s charm.
Our sun drenched days were spent exploring the crumbling, ancient, and abandoned castles which peppered the shores of the country’s endless rocky coastline; stopping in small earthy fishing villages for cafe patio meals created from recently picked ingredients & proudly delivered to our table.
Nighttime hours were spent strolling the Old Town and popping into ambience dripping old world restaurants for a late-night meal… followed by a wine flowing festive night life taken in while bar crawling the endless number of tavernas.
“ALEXANDRIA”, 2021 #7
O/C, 51”X48”, trapezoid
Egypt was still on high-alert from the Yom Kippur War with Israel when we arrived in Cairo… Egypt is a classic exotic destination best absorbed through emersion… So… after several days in Cairo and riding camels to the Great Pyramids of Giza, we hired the car and driver required to travel north to the Mediterranean and the militarily strategic costal city of Alexandria.
“ALEXANDRIA”, the title of this just completed oil painting, refers to the Egyptian metropolis founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC… Alexandria is also where Cleopatra was born, died, and is entombed… So much of Karen’s visual persona can be connected to the eternal exotic influences of ancient Egypt and Cleopatra, its 1st century BC queen… More than once journalists attempting to describe Karen stated she had “Cleopatra eyes”… This is not the 1st time I painted Cleopatra… “FAME, HONOR and the LOVE of a WOMAN”… the large irregular shaped watercolor on multiple pieces of Arches paper was executed while we journeyed from Amsterdam to Cologne. At that time I painted the lifeless reclining Queen of the Nile after she (Cleopatra) took her life using a poisonous asp…
In this just completed oil painting, Karen enters a state of ecstasy as two red snakes caress her slender body. The spirit and spell of Cleopatra endured all the while we were in Egypt and still today…. Tony Barone
“KENYA”, 2021 #6
O/C, 51”X48”, trapezoid
Unless one is Tarzan, one must tour Kenya using well organized guides who move efficiently from game parks laden with zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, and gazelle … to… luxury British empire hotels with late afternoon gin & tonic cocktails on the veranda musing over Mount Kilimanjaro shimmering in a warm burnished ochre of heat rising from the East African terrain…. Include overnight stays at William Holden’s Mount Kenya Safari Club and the world famous Tree Tops, which accommodates it’s limited number of guest in a 3 level wood crafted structure built in the limbs of trees adjacent to a watering hole for elephants, waterbucks, warthogs, and African buffaloes. …and known for one of its most famous visitors – Queen Elizabeth. The night Princess Elizabeth spent at Treetops is also the day she rose to the throne as Queen. Her father King George VI had passed away during her Commonwealth tour in Kenya…. From there off to villages to mingle with toweringly tall, spear touting, lion hunting, Maasai warriors draped in explosive colored fabrics and covered in beaded leather jewelry stacked high around their necks, wrists and ankles… Karen returned with tons of design concept & color palette ideas … I returned with Karen whose soul had absorbed Kenya …. we both absorbed a hunger for more adventure.
….Tony Barone
“PARIS” 2021 #5
O/C, 51”X48” Trapezoid
“WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS”
One of the most memorable lines in film comes from the 1942 classic Casablanca, when ex-pat Rick (Humphrey Bogart) tells his former lover Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) “We’ll always have Paris” referring to their brief romance the eve of World War II—a courtship ended with the Nazi invasion of France.
Karen and I visited France frequently and each trip was romantic & indelible. This painting titled “PARIS” recalls a particular adventure to “The City of Light”, La Ville Lumière, when Karen & I had a private meeting with Christian Lacroix, “Paris-fashion-bad-boy”, in his Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré atelier. The president of Dior in New York had just licensed “Lacroix” in the category of cosmetics & fragrance. Our friend Mary Hamilton, then head of Armani, S.F. and the worldwide fashionista of fashionistas, introduced us to the head of Dior. The purpose of the rendezvous with Lacroix was to have us create/design/sculpt the bottles and packaging for the forthcoming Christian Lacroix fragrance line – “Lacroix-sweetie-Lacroix” ….Tony Barone
“GOA” 2021 #4
O/C, 51”X48” Trapezoid
“Of all the countries which contributed to Karen and my artistic DNA, India was one of the most indelible. India is an immersive crash course in color… And … like every country Karen & I adventured to, Karen absorbed all of it, almost by osmosis & it became a part of her. The former Portuguese Colony of Goa, and the title of this painting, is no exception. Located on the Arabian Sea coast of southern India, Goa was an explosion of color on a background of pristine white sand beaches, blue skies and tropical green vegetation.” …Tony Barone
“ACAPULCO” 2021 #3
O/C, 51”X48” Trapezoid
One of the trilogy based on 1989 pencil drawing
“LIDO” 2021 #2
O/C, 51”X48” Trapezoid
One of the trilogy based on 1989 pencil drawing.
“QUITO” 2021 #1
O/C, 51”X48” Trapezoid
One of the trilogy based on 1989 pencil drawing
2020 PAINTINGS
by
“SOHO” 2020#15
O/C, 51″ x 48″ Trapezoid
“LONDON” 2020#14
O/C, 51″ x 48″ Trapezoid
“MARRAKESH” 2020#13
O/C, 51″ x 48″ Trapezoid
“MADRID” 2020#12
O/C, 51″ x 48″ Trapezoid
“RIO” 2020#11
O/C, 50″ x 46″ Trapezoid
“JAMAICA” 2020#10
O/C 50″ x 46″ Trapezoid
“ABIDJAN” 2020#9
O/C, 54” x 48” trapezoid
”KILIMANJARO” 2020#8
O/C, 55″ x 50 trapezoid
“MALAYSIA” 2020#7
O/C, 54” X 54” trapezoid
“SENEGAL” 2020#6
O/C, 55” x 54” trapezoid
”OSAKA” 2020#5
O/C, 48” X 48” trapezoid
”ANNAPURNA” 2020#4
O/C, 53” X 49” trapezoid
”KATHMANDU” 2020#3
O/C, 54” X 49” trapezoid
“BAULE” 2020#2
O/C. 53″ x 48″ Trapezoid
