I was very shocked to hear the great artist and illustrator Tony Stella has passed away. He was not only an artist working in film posters and illustrations, but also a volcano of knowledge about international cinema, with a specific interest in Japanese films. I had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of years ago, I still can’t believe it… he was only 45 or 46 years old…
As an homage to Tony I’ve translated the interview, but this is just a fraction of the conversation, we went on talking for hours, he was very generous and an unstoppable force when talking about movies…he will be missed.
Interview with Tony Stella
(originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto/Alias in August 2018)
Hand-painted film posters and illustrations are an art that, unfortunately, is no longer practiced today as it once was. There are, however, pockets of resistance—admittedly increasingly rare—where artists still engage in this craft. No one manages to combine artistic flair with an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema from every latitude better than Tony Stella, the nom de plume of an artist and illustrator based in Germany with Italian roots, whose fame rather unexpectedly exploded a few years ago through social media and shows no sign of slowing down. In recent years, Stella has created posters for feature films and series, as well as numerous illustrations for DVD and Blu-ray releases—a unique touch capable of shifting and adapting depending on the tone of the work and the filmmaker in question.
How did your professional journey begin?
I started out in the fine arts world, and my works sold quite well, but prices were too tied to the name, to the “brand,” too dependent, so to speak, on market fluctuations. The turning point for me came during my stay in Japan. I lived in Kitakyushu for a year and a half; there, the entire international art world was magnified, and one couldn’t really go against the system. But I realized that this path wasn’t viable for me—I needed more creative freedom. Moreover, I wanted, and still want, my work to speak for me rather than my persona. I’m not interested in the name or in my personal figure. I started with graffiti on the streets—graffiti being, in a way, an anonymous art form—and perhaps everything stems from there.
During the time when I was painting professionally, I always continued—almost as a parallel passion—to draw film-related posters and illustrations for myself. Over nearly twenty years, purely out of passion and long before putting my work online, I had already created more than 600 posters and 2,000 drawings inspired by films, scenes, actors, and so on.
From your work and your podcast appearances, one can see an incredible knowledge of cinema—high and low, from art cinema to genre films, from Italian to Japanese cinema, from martial arts films to those of Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. Where does this passion come from?
I grew up with a group of friends for whom cinema was our shared language. The mother of one of my friends had a film distribution company here in Germany, and whenever we visited her house—after roaming the city doing graffiti—there were always films playing and videocassettes everywhere. Personally, I liked owning VHS tapes of my favorite films so I could watch them over and over again, and I also enjoyed customizing them by creating covers for them. In a way, on a different scale, that’s what I still do today.
When I was working in the fine arts world, people often asked me why I didn’t incorporate my passion for cinema into my paintings, but I always refused because I didn’t want to spoil that passion—I wanted to keep the two things separate.
How do you usually create your posters and drawings? Where do you start?
When I rewatch a film I like—even just a short clip—if I manage to perceive something new that strikes me, I start sketching instinctively. Those initial sketches then evolve into something more complete, so when a commission comes in, I already have material to work from.
All your works are hand-painted, correct?
Yes, of course. I use various techniques, often mixed. For example, if it’s an older film with a distinctive artistic cinematography, I might choose oil painting. If I’m working on a classic Japanese film, I might use ink or watercolors. Ultimately, it depends on the tone I want to give the work; I also use pastels or charcoal. In this sense, my teacher was my grandfather, who painted with whatever he could find—he experimented constantly. Using different techniques is also a way for me to disappear behind my work and let the film speak through the illustration or poster. It ties back to what I was saying about graffiti: in the early days, before being influenced by the ego-driven culture of hip hop, graffiti was appreciated for being recognizable yet anonymous—the identity of the artist wasn’t important.
Are there any artists you admire, in cinema or art more generally, who inspired you?
Above all, Tintoretto. When I visited Venice as a child, I was left speechless in front of his works—I couldn’t believe a human being had painted them. Probably also Giacometti; I appreciated his personality, restrained even in being a great artist. Then, when I became more interested in posters and illustrations, artists like Bob Peak and Robert McGinnis, Studio Favalli, Enrico De Seta, and the entire Roman school.
Your “success” came only recently, right?
Yes, although as a painter, as I mentioned, I was fairly appreciated at the beginning. But then everything came to a halt, driven by my unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the situation I was in. The beginning of my career as a poster artist and illustrator came when I was on vacation in Sardinia visiting a friend and feeling very low. I didn’t know which professional path to take, and this friend, seeing my passion for cinema, suggested putting my posters and illustrations online. Without telling me, he even uploaded some of my works on Tumblr. Then I discovered Twitter, and everything grew from there.
What was the first major or important commission you were asked to do?
There have been many, but one interaction I remember very fondly is when I received praise from William Friedkin for creating the original illustration for the vinyl soundtrack of Sorcerer.
Recently, you also created posters and illustrations for the miniseries The Underground Railroad by Barry Jenkins.
Yes, I had already collaborated with him on the cover of the soundtrack for If Beale Street Could Talk. For The Underground Railroad, he supported me a lot in dealing with Amazon, pushing for my drawings to be used without being altered or made more commercial. He wanted the poster and illustrations to be a form of art that communicated something about the series, not just simple advertising.
I’ve seen that you recently posted many drawings and posters about Columbo.
During the pandemic, many people rediscovered Columbo, and those drawings are part of a project related to a book about the series and the character that unfortunately never materialized. More generally—not only for Columbo—I have an enormous amount of material, hundreds of drawings and illustrations, and I don’t have the time needed to select and scan the originals. It’s a huge job that maybe one day someone will do for me.
Is there anything upcoming that you can talk about?
There are a couple of projects with well-known figures that I can’t talk about yet. But paradoxically, what I’m most looking forward to is having some time for myself to return to drawing. For me, it’s a kind of therapy, and it helps me maintain a sense of calm.
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