"Tony Tetro, World's Greatest Art Forger" Personal Page by giampiero6

'There are Tetros hanging in museums and galleries around the world, I'm sure...'
--Martin Lawrence Galleries.

Tony Tetro was the world's greatest art forger in the 70's and 80's. In a career spanning over 20 years, Tony forged works by major masters in every genre. Ira Reiner, Los Angeles District Attorney called Tony, "the single largest forger of art works in America." In 1989, Tony was convicted of art forgery in a show trial in Los Angeles. He was released from jail in 1994. Currently he executes master copies for an exclusive list of elite clients from his studio in Southern California. I wrote a movie screenplay about him that is currently in negotiations, and a story will be appearing about him in a major US periodical soon. If you would like to commission a work of art by Tony or if would like to contact him visit: www.tonytetro.com

by Tony Tetro
Below are listed the various artists that I've copied or emulated
with the medium and methods I used to make them look real and the provenances if any that were used.

There many more artists that I painted in the last 30 years
but the 9 listed below are the most well know that I did "professionally" from 1972 to 1989.

1. Salvador Dali

[1A] Dali
Where do I begin. I did most every medium that Dali did
with the exception of sculpture, bronzes and jewelry. This includes oil
paintings, drawings, watercolors, gouaches, lithographs and etchings.
I don't remember exactly how many oils I did but its somewhere
over 25 paintings in different eras. Each painting had to make sense so I
wouldn't put elements that he did in the 40's and 50's that he did in the
60's and 70's. This of course applies to drawings , watercolors and gouaches.
Dali, unlike Picasso didn't catalog everything he did. This
opened the door for emulating his art which is the only way I did his
"original" one of a kind artwork. Dali often wrote about work that he did
that I couldn’t find in any art books [ like the six exploding angels and I
could only find a couple]. Another way was to take a drawing, watercolor,
gouache and even etching he did and use that as the bases for an oil painting.
I believe all his lithographs were originally oil paintings.[ I should
mention here that I read some people believe Dali never did any lithographs
and that all of them were photo mechanically produced by collotype or
lithography printed by publishers then Dali would sign them or more common on
"pre signed" paper that could be bought in blocks of 500 or 1000 sheets]

I would use grumbacher or La France oils and mix with linseed oil
and a "sicitive dryer" that allows the oil to dry more quickly. This is
important because it takes 50 years for an oil painting to dry then
"craqular" begins. Craqular is formed when the paint shrinks from evaporation
of the oil. Actually "islands" are formed and the perimeter of each island is
a crack. But even with the sicitive dryer it doesn’t dry completely but much
better than without it.
I would sometimes use old canvases if I could find them and strip
off the paint with commercial paint remover and then cover the canvas with a
water based white gesso. More often I would use new stretcher bars and canvas
that I purchased in Paris because they are European sizes and still made by
dovetailing and glue and even the nails are the same as 40 or 50 years ago.
European canvas and stretchers are not available anywhere in the U.S. Then I
artificially aged it by bleaching the canvas and staining the stretcher bars
with walnut stain. The bleach would damage or burn the fibers and dry it out
and make it brittle. This is good because when a painting is new the canvas
is very pliable as it ages it becomes more and more brittle. On a painting
that is older you can press your finger on the back of the canvas and feel
the difference. At this point I would dilute raw umber until it had a watery
consistency and soak the canvas and the stretcher bars. While I was working
on the entire project I would smoke [Lucky Strikes] and put the butts in a 8
ounce glass of water less than half full and put the ashes in another empty 8
ounce glass.

I would then cover the entire front of the painting with a less
diluted mixer of raw umber to give a slight "patina" depending on what era
the painting was completed. How dark the patina was depended on if I wanted
to make look neglected or protected and how old it was. Often a painting is
neglected by being in an environment that changes from hot and dry to cold and
humid. It could be in direct sun light or not. A painting that’s been
neglected will also have more craqular than one in a stable environment
without direct sun light. I preferred a neglected look most of the time, it
seemed more believable. Now I would use a water based varnish and after It
dried to the touch I would bake it in my oven at around 250 degrees for about
an hour taking it out occasionally to make sure there was no damage. This
would dry out everything, the paint, canvas and stretcher bars. Now I would
cover the image with a clear oil based resin. This was never done by Dali or
any artist for that matter because it dried so hard it could never be taken
off for cleaning or restoration. It was so hard because I had to mix two
catalysts together and a chemical reaction would happen. I purchased this in
a craft store, old ladies would pour this into ready made molds to make knick
knacks. Now there would be another chemical reaction between the water based
varnish and the oil based resin. The varnish would crack only slightly. The
cracking could be controlled by how much of the water based varnish and oil
based resin was used. Thinner coatings produced less craqular. Dali's
generally don't have craqular because most have been protected in a stable
environment but not all of them. Just a touch of craqular seemed to add
authenticity. Because the resin was so hard it made it almost impossible to
test the age of the paint although the chemical composition would be the same
because Dali used the same oils, La France in Spain and grumbacher in New
York. [Dali often spent the winter in New York] If while testing the painting
it was found odd that the resin was used it could be explained that someone
stupid varnished it because I don't believe Dali Varnished his own paintings
although I don't know this for a fact. It also could have been varnished at a
later time. Never the less the resin wouldn't dismiss it as fake. Also
paintings are rarely tested anyway. Now I would bake it again when the resin
is dry to the touch. This not only helps dry it but also binds the water
based varnish and the resin together. Now I would again cover the image with
diluted raw umber to fill in the tiny cracks then wipe it down so as not to
have to much aging At this time I would take the cigarette butts out of the
8 ounce glass with chop sticks and smear the brown sludge all over the
painting front and back including stretcher bars. This would make the patina
just right because cigarette smoke is one reason paintings have patinas
anyway. Then I would wet the back of the canvas with water and sprinkle on
the cigarette ashes I've been collecting in the other 8 oz glass and smear it
in. I've notice that some old paintings have a gray brown look on the back of
the canvas and the ashes soften the raw umber to give it gray tinge. I was at
Sotheby's Beverly Hills in the 70's before it closed and noticed a man smell
a painting. The cigarette smell would make sense. Then I baked it again.
Lastly, I use ultra fine wet sand paper and wet sanded the image to scratch
it slightly like it! was cleaned with house hold products by a maid or whoever
for 40 or 50 years. Finally I wet the nails [Dali used nails even after
staples were used on canvases, also no master European artists used staples]
and then salted them so they would rust. I did this after I was done because
if I did it before the rust stain wouldn't bleed around the nails and that
gave it another touch of reality.

See more fascinating insights at www.tonytetro.com