This is an ONTD Art Moment™: Artist Edition: Antonio Lopez 🎨🖼️🖌️
Previous Artist Edition Art Moment post: Yayoi Kusama
For today’s installation of “ONTD Alternative Art History” we’’re going to kick it old-school and focus on the fine tradition of illustration. Before photography became mainstream there was a certain cachet in illustration in magazines and newspapers articles because it was considered classy. If you were an illustrator (or just studying to be one, or drawing on your own) in the 80s there were two illustrators that people wanted to emulate. The first was Patrick Nagel, who did beautiful, graphic illustrations for Playboy and other magazines, and who created the artwork for Duran Duran's acclaimed "Rio" album. The second was Antonio Lopez.
Whether it was in Vogue or Andy Warhol’s Interview or an ad for Bloomingdale’s, he supplied a bit of ephemera that had such force of vision that his contemporaries found themselves bending toward it. The late 70s-80s was a sea change in diversity in models, fashion, and art, and Antonio was very much a part of that because not only did he make a name for himself, he also championed models like Grace Jones, Pat Cleveland, Jane Forth, Jerry Hall, Tina Chow, and others and put them on the map. He ushered in a new type of woman; a powerful, unique, and multicultural one that turned heads and was the woman of the moment.
But who is Antonio Lopez? Much has been made of his work, his muses, and lovers both male and female, but that is not what makes the man. In honor of the end of Hispanic Heritage month, I am highlighting this wonderful man because he is an old fave of mine, and his work deserves to be discovered by a new generation. His star only burned for a short time, but his talent is forever. While there are a lot of pretty pictures in this post to sustain you, I implore ONTD to read as well because this man’s life was wild as hell.
Born in 1943 in Utuado, Puerto Rico, Lopez moved with his family to Spanish Harlem when he was 7 or 8 years old. In their adopted country, Lopez’s father was a mannequin maker and his mother was a seamstress. Having an interest in fashion and illustration at a young age, Lopez attended New York’s Traphagen School of Fashion, the High School of Art and Design, and finally the Fashion Institute of Technology. It was at FIT where he met Juan Ramos, a fellow Puerto Rican transplant.
Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
The two would become life partners in the creative (and, for a few years, romantic) sense, with Ramos doing everything from researching inspiration to coloring in Lopez’s outlines and editing creations. In addition, Ramos was also a great art director with the refinement Antonio at times lacked, and the two made a formidable team. (OP Note: It’s generally understood that the signature “Antonio,” when it appeared on a magazine page or in commercial work, stood for the work of both men.)
Before fashion photography became widespread in magazines, sketch artists were the ones who conveyed the latest fashion trends to readers. In the late seventies, fashion designers were coming out of the shadow of being mere “dressmakers” and were becoming household names and personalities like Halston, Calvin Klein, Versace, and others. For many of these designers having an illustration or photograph of their work in leading fashion magazines had a certain cachet. While still a student at FIT, Lopez began working for Women’s Wear Daily as an illustrator, but when Carrie Donovan of the New York Times reached out with work for the newspaper he jumped at the opportunity.
It was at this time where he branched out his style, drawing thicker figures than most of his contemporaries, and when psychedelics infused popular culture, his work took on their warbly sherbet aesthetic. Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington mentions in the documentary Sex, Fashion, & Disco “before Antonio couture and fashion drawings had a stiff, posed quality. Antonio, on the other hand brought the girls on paper to life."
The Paris Years
From early in his career, Antonio had always championed the unusual, the ethnic, and pushed for the inclusion of models of color in his work. (Note: This is also around the time where Donyala Luna was blackballed in the US Southern Markets for basically being Black and went abroad to get work). When he collaborated with American magazines he used Black models often, but received pushback to the point that sometimes he would withhold his work until the last moment when nothing could be changed.
Carol LaBrie in Italian Vogue, 1971. LaBrie was the first black model on the cover. © Copyright The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, 2012
Tired of this attitude, Antonio and several of his muses decamped to Paris, where it went a little like this:
America: Those models and your work is too ethnic and when it’s not ethnic the models are strange-looking. Nope.
Europe (and in particular, Paris): You and your models are welcome here! Bring all your Black, ethnic, and weird looking White models, and we’ll put them to work! Fuck the American market!
Antonio and his muses were welcome in Paris where they received quite a following, including the young Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld worked for Chloé at the time and was very fond of both Lopez and Ramos, and bankrolled their stay in Europe. Antonio and his muses greatly rubbed off on Karl and inspired his work, while encouraging him to push his ideas further and go to levels had hadn’t in the past.
Antonio, Karl Lagerfeld, and Pat Cleveland
At the time, Lagerfeld had a rivalry going with his dreaded frenemy Yves Saint Laurent and wanted something new to give his own work an edge, and Antonio and Juan’s feedback and help provided that. (OP Note: Nothing has been said about a liaison between them and Karl, but considering how Karl put them and the muses up in one of his apartments and took care of them otherwise for extended periods of time it’s obvious he was quite fond of them, especially Juan). Karl, Antonio, and Juan often brainstormed together, and this collaboration changed Chloé into the aesthetic it later became famous for.
Things proceeded to get crazy during their stay in Europe, as Antonio and his muses (Donna Jordan, the fabulous eyebrow-less Jane Forth, Carol LaBrie, Patti D’Arbanville, and Pat Cleveland at that time) set Paris on fire with their marvelous ways. They were truly his illustrations come to life as they danced down the fashion runways and in the clubs with their faces painted in bright colors, and breathed life into Paris.
Antonio and Friends, Club Sept, Paris 1977
After years of the staid, old world fashion salons Paris was ready for something different...something exciting. Antonio’s Girls (as they became known) were a part of the sea change that led to more diversity in fashion, as all the Black and Brown models who couldn’t get arrested in the States found themselves extremely booked and busy in the European markets. And after a while something strange happened; America saw all the glamour and work his models were doing overseas and did an about face:
America: We’re sorry guys. Can ya’ll come back? We’ll put you to work….honest!
So they came back, and yes, the American market was a lot more receptive to his muses. In later years, Antonio often repeated this process, with models including Grace Jones, Tina Chow, and Jerry Hall (who was initially considered “too big and too cornfed” for an American market that venerated Cheryl Tiegs) and it always ended the same way; girl doesn’t get work in American Market, goes to Europe with Antonio for a while, gets big there, America realizes what they’re missing, and so forth. In those days, a relationship with a photographer and a model often led to more work because the photographers often hand-picked the models they worked with and made suggestions to magazines on who to use, and Antonio was no different except he got a lot of girls work who wouldn’t otherwise get picked. When the 80s arrived there was a lot less pushback to having WOC in magazines and advertising, and Antonio took advantage of that.
It wasn’t all work though. At the time Antonio came back to the States his posse was only rivaled by Warhol’s Factory posse, and all of them would go out and party hard with the Beautiful People (Grace Jones and Jane Forth were the few who was in both Lopez and Warhol’s camps with the latter calling Grace on an almost daily basis to talk about life, lol). Warhol and Lopez had a grudging respect/mutual admiration society for each other, and the two groups would often cross paths at the different NYC clubs at the time. Antonio also had a ravenous sexual appetite, and even though Juan Ramos was his life partner in every way that mattered Antonio frequently took lovers both male and female because he loved people and didn’t see why he should limit himself to just one sex. He had sex with several of his muses, he had sex with friends, he had sex with strangers…it was all the same to him. This, in turn fueled his work, as director James Crump stated "There’s a real connection between his sexuality and the actual producing of the drawings; it’s something that blends together. He wasn’t compartmentalizing his life, he wasn’t saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to draw now, later I’m going to go out and have fun and party,’ it was all this blend and there were no barriers to his existence-he was doing it all at once."
LOL, I know you Millenials and Gen Z types are in here thinking “Look at this Papi Chulu fucker” but what you need to appreciate is in the late 70s this was the height of style and fashion. If you were at the disco back then and saw someone dressed like that you would be ALL OVER HIM because that was stylish.
Like Warhol, Antonio was also known for doing portraits of his celeb friends and people he liked and the odd book illustration. Below are a few of my favorites:
Mick Jagger and Tina Turner
Gianni and Donatella Versace
Billy Idol
Illustration from the book “Antonio’s Tales From the Thousand And One Nights”
The Muses
Antonio’s Girls for Bloomingdales (Pat Cleveland, Tina Chow, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Sayako, Rita Tellone, Tara Handling, Jessica Lange) 1982. ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
The muses were a great part of Antonio's life and fueled his creative energy. It's very important to note that all of the muses interviewed for the "Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion Disco" documentary had nothing but wonderful things to say about him; I think it was pretty telling that Pat Cleveland said that when he was with you, you were all he focused on, and he never left a muse unless he was sure he/she went on to bigger and brighter things. All of his muses viewed their time with Antonio as a special time in their lives. It seems like his main interest was not only to collaborate, but to genuinely uplift everyone who worked with him, and that was a very refreshing attitude to have during those times.
Jessica Lange
Jessica was broke and studying mime (no, really, lol) when she met Antonio walking down a boulevard in Saint Germain near the Odéon in Paris. When he realized he had forgotten to get her phone number, he put up little notices on the neighborhood trees and lampposts requesting that the “blond American girl” contact him. Which she did, and soon Jessica found herself in the middle of art, fun, and all things Antonio. While she immensely enjoyed working with Antonio in Paris, she became deeply disillusioned with the modeling world in New York and made a pivot into acting, thus becoming the powerhouse we all know and love.
Did she hit that, though? Considering how she once said “When I say I had a crush on him, I was absolutely crazy about him,” she most definitely did, lol. The good sis went on and on about his intensity and the way he danced, lol.
Iman
Iman and Jerry Hall, NYC
Though she was never officially one of “Antonio’s Girls” she was quite fond of him, and the two worked together on a Vogue spread and often partied together after that. Iman’s initially became famous in the States because Peter Beard (the photographer who discovered her) told the press that he found her herding goats or some such nonsense and didn’t speak English (so the Western media would think she was more “exotic” than, say, Beverly Johnson) when she actually spoke four languages and was attending the University of Nairobi as a Poli-Sci major. Since these early modelling days, Iman went on to play muse to some of fashion's biggest and most legendary designers, including Gianni Versace, Halston, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Yves Saint Laurent.
Did she and Antonio smash? Iman wasn’t about that life; hell, she even denied a young David Bowie when he asked her out for the first time, and even though she had many would-be suitors Iman always kept her eyes on the prize. Considering how messy Antonio was it’s probably a good thing that Iman didn’t shit where she ate.
Pat Cleveland
Became one of the OG Antonio Girls in 1971 after becoming disillusioned by America and the treatment of Black models. Cleveland decided to take Antonio up on his offer to go to Paris, where she became a house model for Karl Lagerfeld (who worked for Chloé). She also had a lot of backhanded, shady things to say about Grace Jones but I won’t repeat that nasty talk here because I've stanned that good sis since childhood and I won’t hear one word against her. She quickly became a favorite of designers such as Oscar De la Renta, Thierry Mugler, YSL, and Dior, and her career and hard partying ways became the stuff of legends. She returned to the U.S. after Beverly Johnson appeared on the cover of American Vogue in 1974 and continued to have a successful career.
Did they do the horizontal rumble? OMG, yes they did, and she goes into it in the documentary. The good sis was in love, lust, and everything else and I’m sure there’s a part of her that still loves him.
Tina Chow
Tina Chow. ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
Tina was one of Antonio’s favorite muses as well as a close friend to both him and Juan. Chow was the “It” girl amongst the fashion circles from mid seventies on, counting herself as a muse to designers like Yves St. Laurent and Issey Miyake, and even creatives like Helmut Newton and Warhol. She first met Antonio in Tokyo where he and Juan were doing a job at the time and he loved her Eurasian looks. She pivoted her career into becoming a successful jewelry designer and AIDS activist in the mid-80s. Sadly, she died in 1992 from complications from AIDS at age 41.
Did she pin the tail on that donkey? Considering how she was married to restauranteur Michael Chow from 1971 until 1989 it’s kinda doubtful, but she and Michael appeared to have a somewhat open marriage so who knows?
Grace Jones
Grace Jones. ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
Grace was yet another fashion model tired of the biases in American modeling who took Antonio up on his offer to go to Paris, where she shared an apartment with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange. As other unkind people have stated (looking at you, Pat Cleveland) Grace was a little rough around the edges, but the combination of Antonio’s tutelage and being in Paris allowed her to blossom. The Parisian fashion scene fell in love with Grace and her unusual, androgynous, bold looks and she was constantly in demand. Grace eventually became a muse to Warhol. Keith Haring, and Dali and made a conversion from modeling to singing and acting. She is also known for her (at times controversial) collaborations with artist and designer Jean Paul Goude as they had a relationship that was both professional and personal, and as his muse was featured prominently in his work from the 80s.
Did Grace get her ashes hauled? She never stated in the documentary or in any of the interviews I’ve seen where she mentions him that they had any type of relationship other than artist/muse, so I’m going to go with that.
Jerry Hall
Jerry Hall and Antonio. © Copyright The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
Jerry Hall was a 17 year old fresh from Texas who was discovered by fashion agent Claude Haddad while on holiday in France with her twin sister. She was dancing at Club Sept (a notorious club in Paris that catered to all tastes and where people frequently took their clothes off to dance just to be super extra) when spotted by Antonio, who then went home and told friends that “he had seen the Ultimate Antonio girl” and truly she was one of his sketches come to life. She was a lot; a lot of height (six feet tall), a lot of blonde hair, a lot of smile, a lot of personality. She was soon modeling for Antonio, and was his chief muse for years.
Did …something happen here? Unfortunately it did. 17 year old Jerry and Antonio clicked instantly and were so enamored with each other that (much to the chagrin of Juan) she moved in with them, and the 4 of them (I believe someone who was seeing Juan at the time also was there too?) lived together for years in this crazy ass quadtrouple until Jerry finally decided she wasn’t about that life and left Antonio for musician Bryan Ferry. (OP Note: Societal mores were a lot different in the 70s and early 80s, and older teens with grown ass people was a lot more acceptable then than it is now. It’s still seriously grimy though. :/).
Jane Forth
Jane was also an OG Antonio Girl dating back to his pre-Paris Parsons/FIT years. Jane became known in the art circles when one day she decided “I don’t want eyebrows anymore” and then proceeded to go into the bathroom at the club to shave them off. She became known for this look as makeup artists loved to draw “brows” on her that were different colors/widths, and she soon had Antonio’s attention. She was one of Antonio’s early muses as he loved the way she moved and would often request that she move while he sketched. Magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue really picked up on her and her look and she became an It Girl around NYC and was a notable in places like The Factory and Max’s Kansas City.
Did she yoke that bird? I really doubt it. This was during the period where Antonio was completely enamored with Juan, and based on her comments in the documentary it was very much a brother-sister type of love between the three of them.
The Decline
Sadly, the 80s marked the end of a more permissive, experimental time and the beginning of the AIDS era, and many bright, talented, artistic people in certain New York circles succumbed to it, including Mapplethorpe, Tina Chow, and Keith Haring. It was a very scary, horrible time as there were barely any medicines to help, and there was a lot of ignorance going on at the time so people who had it were treated like social pariahs and worse in their communities and even from the people who loved them. When Antonio was first diagnosed, he and Juan spent a lot of time and expense trying to find medications that would slow the onset of the disease. Unfortunately nothing helped and he soon experienced a marked decline in health, even as he tried to meet his work commitments. With funds running low, Lopez was in the position where he had to ask past clients for work, which he did…with mixed results.
This period unfortunately marked the end of his friendship with Lagerfeld when Antonio (sick and needing money at the time) suggested that he do a campaign for Lagerfeld and created images for it, only for Lagerfeld to say “My dear, suppose you get really sick in the middle of the campaign and can’t finish it?” However, not all old friends abandoned him; when he approached Oscar de la Renta regarding creating a campaign for his collection while telling him “I’m not sure if I will be able to complete it” the de la Renta people kindly told him to “do whatever you can” and hired him anyway.
Lopez died in March in 1987 of Karposi Sarcoma at UCLA Medical Center, leaving behind his talent and everyone who loved him. He was living in New York at the time, but was in Los Angeles for an exhibition of his art at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica. Juan Ramos also succumbed to AIDS eight years later. Together, they were a part of New York and Paris’s art and fashion history that will never be repeated.
Thank you for taking this look at an amazing time in NY and Parisian history that had rapid changes in race perception, sexuality, design, music, and showcased fashion illustration as art. Unfortunately, it’s a dying art as art schools really don’t teach Fashion Illustration now. Artists of ONTD, do you still kick it analog with markers, pencils, and pens, or are you part of the new digital revolution? What are some of your favorite illustrators either online or what you’ve seen in history books or museums? Let me know in the comments!
~ Die Quellen ~
Read:
+ Antonio’s Girls: Antonio’s first book about his muses and friends. This book is out of print, and when you do find it it’s expensive. The bonus to this book is it has many fine examples of his earlier work, including illustrations of some of his muses that haven't been reproduced elsewhere.
+ Antonio’s People: Considered a later edition of Antonio’s Girls with never seen before photographs and artwork. Is also a cheaper, more accessible book of his work. I've included several photographs from my copy in this post.
Watch:
+ Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion Disco: This documentary covers all aspects of Antonio’s life and features interviews from many of his peers/muses/friends. A definite watch if this post interested you and you want to know more about this fantastic man. This is streaming in a few places so do some looking if you don’t like Amazon.
Other resources used in this post
+ The Antonio Archives: Online archive preserving the legacy of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos. All photos used from the archive in this post have been properly credited.
+ GQ article featuring Antonio and his life and work.
+ W Magazine feature about Antonio’s life and loves
+ Another Article featuring the Antonio documentary
For today’s installation of “ONTD Alternative Art History” we’’re going to kick it old-school and focus on the fine tradition of illustration. Before photography became mainstream there was a certain cachet in illustration in magazines and newspapers articles because it was considered classy. If you were an illustrator (or just studying to be one, or drawing on your own) in the 80s there were two illustrators that people wanted to emulate. The first was Patrick Nagel, who did beautiful, graphic illustrations for Playboy and other magazines, and who created the artwork for Duran Duran's acclaimed "Rio" album. The second was Antonio Lopez.
Whether it was in Vogue or Andy Warhol’s Interview or an ad for Bloomingdale’s, he supplied a bit of ephemera that had such force of vision that his contemporaries found themselves bending toward it. The late 70s-80s was a sea change in diversity in models, fashion, and art, and Antonio was very much a part of that because not only did he make a name for himself, he also championed models like Grace Jones, Pat Cleveland, Jane Forth, Jerry Hall, Tina Chow, and others and put them on the map. He ushered in a new type of woman; a powerful, unique, and multicultural one that turned heads and was the woman of the moment.
But who is Antonio Lopez? Much has been made of his work, his muses, and lovers both male and female, but that is not what makes the man. In honor of the end of Hispanic Heritage month, I am highlighting this wonderful man because he is an old fave of mine, and his work deserves to be discovered by a new generation. His star only burned for a short time, but his talent is forever. While there are a lot of pretty pictures in this post to sustain you, I implore ONTD to read as well because this man’s life was wild as hell.
Born in 1943 in Utuado, Puerto Rico, Lopez moved with his family to Spanish Harlem when he was 7 or 8 years old. In their adopted country, Lopez’s father was a mannequin maker and his mother was a seamstress. Having an interest in fashion and illustration at a young age, Lopez attended New York’s Traphagen School of Fashion, the High School of Art and Design, and finally the Fashion Institute of Technology. It was at FIT where he met Juan Ramos, a fellow Puerto Rican transplant.
Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
The two would become life partners in the creative (and, for a few years, romantic) sense, with Ramos doing everything from researching inspiration to coloring in Lopez’s outlines and editing creations. In addition, Ramos was also a great art director with the refinement Antonio at times lacked, and the two made a formidable team. (OP Note: It’s generally understood that the signature “Antonio,” when it appeared on a magazine page or in commercial work, stood for the work of both men.)
Before fashion photography became widespread in magazines, sketch artists were the ones who conveyed the latest fashion trends to readers. In the late seventies, fashion designers were coming out of the shadow of being mere “dressmakers” and were becoming household names and personalities like Halston, Calvin Klein, Versace, and others. For many of these designers having an illustration or photograph of their work in leading fashion magazines had a certain cachet. While still a student at FIT, Lopez began working for Women’s Wear Daily as an illustrator, but when Carrie Donovan of the New York Times reached out with work for the newspaper he jumped at the opportunity.
It was at this time where he branched out his style, drawing thicker figures than most of his contemporaries, and when psychedelics infused popular culture, his work took on their warbly sherbet aesthetic. Vogue Creative Director Grace Coddington mentions in the documentary Sex, Fashion, & Disco “before Antonio couture and fashion drawings had a stiff, posed quality. Antonio, on the other hand brought the girls on paper to life."
The Paris Years
From early in his career, Antonio had always championed the unusual, the ethnic, and pushed for the inclusion of models of color in his work. (Note: This is also around the time where Donyala Luna was blackballed in the US Southern Markets for basically being Black and went abroad to get work). When he collaborated with American magazines he used Black models often, but received pushback to the point that sometimes he would withhold his work until the last moment when nothing could be changed.
Carol LaBrie in Italian Vogue, 1971. LaBrie was the first black model on the cover. © Copyright The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, 2012
Tired of this attitude, Antonio and several of his muses decamped to Paris, where it went a little like this:
America: Those models and your work is too ethnic and when it’s not ethnic the models are strange-looking. Nope.
Europe (and in particular, Paris): You and your models are welcome here! Bring all your Black, ethnic, and weird looking White models, and we’ll put them to work! Fuck the American market!
Antonio and his muses were welcome in Paris where they received quite a following, including the young Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld worked for Chloé at the time and was very fond of both Lopez and Ramos, and bankrolled their stay in Europe. Antonio and his muses greatly rubbed off on Karl and inspired his work, while encouraging him to push his ideas further and go to levels had hadn’t in the past.
Antonio, Karl Lagerfeld, and Pat Cleveland
At the time, Lagerfeld had a rivalry going with his dreaded frenemy Yves Saint Laurent and wanted something new to give his own work an edge, and Antonio and Juan’s feedback and help provided that. (OP Note: Nothing has been said about a liaison between them and Karl, but considering how Karl put them and the muses up in one of his apartments and took care of them otherwise for extended periods of time it’s obvious he was quite fond of them, especially Juan). Karl, Antonio, and Juan often brainstormed together, and this collaboration changed Chloé into the aesthetic it later became famous for.
Things proceeded to get crazy during their stay in Europe, as Antonio and his muses (Donna Jordan, the fabulous eyebrow-less Jane Forth, Carol LaBrie, Patti D’Arbanville, and Pat Cleveland at that time) set Paris on fire with their marvelous ways. They were truly his illustrations come to life as they danced down the fashion runways and in the clubs with their faces painted in bright colors, and breathed life into Paris.
Antonio and Friends, Club Sept, Paris 1977
After years of the staid, old world fashion salons Paris was ready for something different...something exciting. Antonio’s Girls (as they became known) were a part of the sea change that led to more diversity in fashion, as all the Black and Brown models who couldn’t get arrested in the States found themselves extremely booked and busy in the European markets. And after a while something strange happened; America saw all the glamour and work his models were doing overseas and did an about face:
America: We’re sorry guys. Can ya’ll come back? We’ll put you to work….honest!
So they came back, and yes, the American market was a lot more receptive to his muses. In later years, Antonio often repeated this process, with models including Grace Jones, Tina Chow, and Jerry Hall (who was initially considered “too big and too cornfed” for an American market that venerated Cheryl Tiegs) and it always ended the same way; girl doesn’t get work in American Market, goes to Europe with Antonio for a while, gets big there, America realizes what they’re missing, and so forth. In those days, a relationship with a photographer and a model often led to more work because the photographers often hand-picked the models they worked with and made suggestions to magazines on who to use, and Antonio was no different except he got a lot of girls work who wouldn’t otherwise get picked. When the 80s arrived there was a lot less pushback to having WOC in magazines and advertising, and Antonio took advantage of that.
It wasn’t all work though. At the time Antonio came back to the States his posse was only rivaled by Warhol’s Factory posse, and all of them would go out and party hard with the Beautiful People (Grace Jones and Jane Forth were the few who was in both Lopez and Warhol’s camps with the latter calling Grace on an almost daily basis to talk about life, lol). Warhol and Lopez had a grudging respect/mutual admiration society for each other, and the two groups would often cross paths at the different NYC clubs at the time. Antonio also had a ravenous sexual appetite, and even though Juan Ramos was his life partner in every way that mattered Antonio frequently took lovers both male and female because he loved people and didn’t see why he should limit himself to just one sex. He had sex with several of his muses, he had sex with friends, he had sex with strangers…it was all the same to him. This, in turn fueled his work, as director James Crump stated "There’s a real connection between his sexuality and the actual producing of the drawings; it’s something that blends together. He wasn’t compartmentalizing his life, he wasn’t saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to draw now, later I’m going to go out and have fun and party,’ it was all this blend and there were no barriers to his existence-he was doing it all at once."
LOL, I know you Millenials and Gen Z types are in here thinking “Look at this Papi Chulu fucker” but what you need to appreciate is in the late 70s this was the height of style and fashion. If you were at the disco back then and saw someone dressed like that you would be ALL OVER HIM because that was stylish.
Like Warhol, Antonio was also known for doing portraits of his celeb friends and people he liked and the odd book illustration. Below are a few of my favorites:
Mick Jagger and Tina Turner
Gianni and Donatella Versace
Billy Idol
Illustration from the book “Antonio’s Tales From the Thousand And One Nights”
The Muses
Antonio’s Girls for Bloomingdales (Pat Cleveland, Tina Chow, Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Sayako, Rita Tellone, Tara Handling, Jessica Lange) 1982. ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
The muses were a great part of Antonio's life and fueled his creative energy. It's very important to note that all of the muses interviewed for the "Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion Disco" documentary had nothing but wonderful things to say about him; I think it was pretty telling that Pat Cleveland said that when he was with you, you were all he focused on, and he never left a muse unless he was sure he/she went on to bigger and brighter things. All of his muses viewed their time with Antonio as a special time in their lives. It seems like his main interest was not only to collaborate, but to genuinely uplift everyone who worked with him, and that was a very refreshing attitude to have during those times.
Jessica Lange
Jessica was broke and studying mime (no, really, lol) when she met Antonio walking down a boulevard in Saint Germain near the Odéon in Paris. When he realized he had forgotten to get her phone number, he put up little notices on the neighborhood trees and lampposts requesting that the “blond American girl” contact him. Which she did, and soon Jessica found herself in the middle of art, fun, and all things Antonio. While she immensely enjoyed working with Antonio in Paris, she became deeply disillusioned with the modeling world in New York and made a pivot into acting, thus becoming the powerhouse we all know and love.
Did she hit that, though? Considering how she once said “When I say I had a crush on him, I was absolutely crazy about him,” she most definitely did, lol. The good sis went on and on about his intensity and the way he danced, lol.
Iman
Iman and Jerry Hall, NYC
Though she was never officially one of “Antonio’s Girls” she was quite fond of him, and the two worked together on a Vogue spread and often partied together after that. Iman’s initially became famous in the States because Peter Beard (the photographer who discovered her) told the press that he found her herding goats or some such nonsense and didn’t speak English (so the Western media would think she was more “exotic” than, say, Beverly Johnson) when she actually spoke four languages and was attending the University of Nairobi as a Poli-Sci major. Since these early modelling days, Iman went on to play muse to some of fashion's biggest and most legendary designers, including Gianni Versace, Halston, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Yves Saint Laurent.
Did she and Antonio smash? Iman wasn’t about that life; hell, she even denied a young David Bowie when he asked her out for the first time, and even though she had many would-be suitors Iman always kept her eyes on the prize. Considering how messy Antonio was it’s probably a good thing that Iman didn’t shit where she ate.
Pat Cleveland
Became one of the OG Antonio Girls in 1971 after becoming disillusioned by America and the treatment of Black models. Cleveland decided to take Antonio up on his offer to go to Paris, where she became a house model for Karl Lagerfeld (who worked for Chloé). She also had a lot of backhanded, shady things to say about Grace Jones but I won’t repeat that nasty talk here because I've stanned that good sis since childhood and I won’t hear one word against her. She quickly became a favorite of designers such as Oscar De la Renta, Thierry Mugler, YSL, and Dior, and her career and hard partying ways became the stuff of legends. She returned to the U.S. after Beverly Johnson appeared on the cover of American Vogue in 1974 and continued to have a successful career.
Did they do the horizontal rumble? OMG, yes they did, and she goes into it in the documentary. The good sis was in love, lust, and everything else and I’m sure there’s a part of her that still loves him.
Tina Chow
Tina Chow. ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
Tina was one of Antonio’s favorite muses as well as a close friend to both him and Juan. Chow was the “It” girl amongst the fashion circles from mid seventies on, counting herself as a muse to designers like Yves St. Laurent and Issey Miyake, and even creatives like Helmut Newton and Warhol. She first met Antonio in Tokyo where he and Juan were doing a job at the time and he loved her Eurasian looks. She pivoted her career into becoming a successful jewelry designer and AIDS activist in the mid-80s. Sadly, she died in 1992 from complications from AIDS at age 41.
Did she pin the tail on that donkey? Considering how she was married to restauranteur Michael Chow from 1971 until 1989 it’s kinda doubtful, but she and Michael appeared to have a somewhat open marriage so who knows?
Grace Jones
Grace Jones. ©The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
Grace was yet another fashion model tired of the biases in American modeling who took Antonio up on his offer to go to Paris, where she shared an apartment with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange. As other unkind people have stated (looking at you, Pat Cleveland) Grace was a little rough around the edges, but the combination of Antonio’s tutelage and being in Paris allowed her to blossom. The Parisian fashion scene fell in love with Grace and her unusual, androgynous, bold looks and she was constantly in demand. Grace eventually became a muse to Warhol. Keith Haring, and Dali and made a conversion from modeling to singing and acting. She is also known for her (at times controversial) collaborations with artist and designer Jean Paul Goude as they had a relationship that was both professional and personal, and as his muse was featured prominently in his work from the 80s.
Did Grace get her ashes hauled? She never stated in the documentary or in any of the interviews I’ve seen where she mentions him that they had any type of relationship other than artist/muse, so I’m going to go with that.
Jerry Hall
Jerry Hall and Antonio. © Copyright The Estate of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos
Jerry Hall was a 17 year old fresh from Texas who was discovered by fashion agent Claude Haddad while on holiday in France with her twin sister. She was dancing at Club Sept (a notorious club in Paris that catered to all tastes and where people frequently took their clothes off to dance just to be super extra) when spotted by Antonio, who then went home and told friends that “he had seen the Ultimate Antonio girl” and truly she was one of his sketches come to life. She was a lot; a lot of height (six feet tall), a lot of blonde hair, a lot of smile, a lot of personality. She was soon modeling for Antonio, and was his chief muse for years.
Did …something happen here? Unfortunately it did. 17 year old Jerry and Antonio clicked instantly and were so enamored with each other that (much to the chagrin of Juan) she moved in with them, and the 4 of them (I believe someone who was seeing Juan at the time also was there too?) lived together for years in this crazy ass quadtrouple until Jerry finally decided she wasn’t about that life and left Antonio for musician Bryan Ferry. (OP Note: Societal mores were a lot different in the 70s and early 80s, and older teens with grown ass people was a lot more acceptable then than it is now. It’s still seriously grimy though. :/).
Jane Forth
Jane was also an OG Antonio Girl dating back to his pre-Paris Parsons/FIT years. Jane became known in the art circles when one day she decided “I don’t want eyebrows anymore” and then proceeded to go into the bathroom at the club to shave them off. She became known for this look as makeup artists loved to draw “brows” on her that were different colors/widths, and she soon had Antonio’s attention. She was one of Antonio’s early muses as he loved the way she moved and would often request that she move while he sketched. Magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue really picked up on her and her look and she became an It Girl around NYC and was a notable in places like The Factory and Max’s Kansas City.
Did she yoke that bird? I really doubt it. This was during the period where Antonio was completely enamored with Juan, and based on her comments in the documentary it was very much a brother-sister type of love between the three of them.
The Decline
Sadly, the 80s marked the end of a more permissive, experimental time and the beginning of the AIDS era, and many bright, talented, artistic people in certain New York circles succumbed to it, including Mapplethorpe, Tina Chow, and Keith Haring. It was a very scary, horrible time as there were barely any medicines to help, and there was a lot of ignorance going on at the time so people who had it were treated like social pariahs and worse in their communities and even from the people who loved them. When Antonio was first diagnosed, he and Juan spent a lot of time and expense trying to find medications that would slow the onset of the disease. Unfortunately nothing helped and he soon experienced a marked decline in health, even as he tried to meet his work commitments. With funds running low, Lopez was in the position where he had to ask past clients for work, which he did…with mixed results.
This period unfortunately marked the end of his friendship with Lagerfeld when Antonio (sick and needing money at the time) suggested that he do a campaign for Lagerfeld and created images for it, only for Lagerfeld to say “My dear, suppose you get really sick in the middle of the campaign and can’t finish it?” However, not all old friends abandoned him; when he approached Oscar de la Renta regarding creating a campaign for his collection while telling him “I’m not sure if I will be able to complete it” the de la Renta people kindly told him to “do whatever you can” and hired him anyway.
Lopez died in March in 1987 of Karposi Sarcoma at UCLA Medical Center, leaving behind his talent and everyone who loved him. He was living in New York at the time, but was in Los Angeles for an exhibition of his art at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica. Juan Ramos also succumbed to AIDS eight years later. Together, they were a part of New York and Paris’s art and fashion history that will never be repeated.
Thank you for taking this look at an amazing time in NY and Parisian history that had rapid changes in race perception, sexuality, design, music, and showcased fashion illustration as art. Unfortunately, it’s a dying art as art schools really don’t teach Fashion Illustration now. Artists of ONTD, do you still kick it analog with markers, pencils, and pens, or are you part of the new digital revolution? What are some of your favorite illustrators either online or what you’ve seen in history books or museums? Let me know in the comments!
~ Die Quellen ~
Read:
+ Antonio’s Girls: Antonio’s first book about his muses and friends. This book is out of print, and when you do find it it’s expensive. The bonus to this book is it has many fine examples of his earlier work, including illustrations of some of his muses that haven't been reproduced elsewhere.
+ Antonio’s People: Considered a later edition of Antonio’s Girls with never seen before photographs and artwork. Is also a cheaper, more accessible book of his work. I've included several photographs from my copy in this post.
Watch:
+ Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion Disco: This documentary covers all aspects of Antonio’s life and features interviews from many of his peers/muses/friends. A definite watch if this post interested you and you want to know more about this fantastic man. This is streaming in a few places so do some looking if you don’t like Amazon.
Other resources used in this post
+ The Antonio Archives: Online archive preserving the legacy of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos. All photos used from the archive in this post have been properly credited.
+ GQ article featuring Antonio and his life and work.
+ W Magazine feature about Antonio’s life and loves
+ Another Article featuring the Antonio documentary