Tony Sisti

Anthony J. Sisti (1901–1983) was an American artist, art instructor and patron of the arts. In his youth, Sisti was also a Bantam Weight boxer. As an artist, Sisti was best known for his oil paintings, drawings, and murals.

Sisti studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. He then taught at the Art Institute of Buffalo before opening his own gallery in Buffalo, New York. Over the years, he painted portraits of many important political and business leaders. In 1981, the City of Buffalo named a park in his honor.

Life

Sisti was born in Greenwich Village in 1901. He moved to Buffalo when he was ten. As a young man, Sisti began boxing at a local gym. A year later, he won the New York State’s 1918 Golden Gloves bantamweight championship. At that point, he became a professional boxer. Over the next twelve years, he boxed whenever he needed money. When he finally retired in 1930, he had fought 100 bouts, winning all but 15. However, his real passion was art.

From 1926 to 1931, Sisti studied visual arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, eventually earning a doctor's degree in painting. During this period, he also traveled throughout Europe. He also accompanied Ernest Hemingway on a trip to the Congo. When he ran out of money, Sisti arranged a boxing match in Rome, winning enough money to finance his return to Buffalo. Later, he used the winnings from another fight to underwrite the cost of a personal art show in New York City.

Oil painting entitled Circus by Tony Sisti, 1934Sisti joined the Art Institute of Buffalo as a member of the faculty in 1932. He taught painting and anatomy at the institute until 1938. During the mid-1930s, he also won several Works Projects Administration art commissions including a large oil painting called Circus and a mural at Buffalo’s City Hospital. Unfortunately, the mural no longer exists.

In 1979, Sisti made a major gift to the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, including 26 paintings and drawings by Charles E. Burchfield as well as 32 of his own works. In 1981, the City of Buffalo named a park in the Allentown area in his honor. Tony Sisti Park is located near the intersection of Franklin Street and North Street.

Sisti died in Buffalo on 15 December 1983.

Sisti’s works have been exhibited in major museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo. The Burchfield-Penney Art Center also displays a number of Sisti’s paintings in its permanent collection.