This November, the Kingston Pop Museum is featuring a special exhibition of the artwork of Antonio Lopez (1943 – 1987) Antonio Lopez Fashion Illustration Exhibit November 1, 2018 Featuring never before seen artworks from the personal collection of John Stavros on display. Exhibition dates: November. 1 , 2018

“To Antonio, illustration was not merely a tool to sell high priced clothing to the upper class white woman, but to demonstrate that regardless of ethnicity, social class, gender or sexual orientation, any individual could evoke their own glamour and style.” Chou belle blog

Antonio Lopez was the crowning dessert of my diet of Kenneth Paul Block, Joe Eula and Mats Gustafson in art school as a Fashion Illustration Major. (Yes, that major actually existed during the art’s last hurrah in the 80’s.) A prodigy as an intern at WWD,Women’s Wear Daily,  Lopez’s style of illustration had all the detail and reverence of the Italian masters.  He was one of fashion’s shining stars who died too early at 44 from AIDS, yet interestingly, he was engaged to Jerry Hall.  Antonio’s illustrations enhanced the career of Jerry Hall and of all his “girls”, Grace Jones, Jessica Lange, Pat Cleveland among many.  They shine in the bible of his work,“Antonio’s Girls.”

Two key factors emerge when looking at the inspiration and history of fashion genius among people of color, families who sewed or did tailoring and extended stays in Paris. For Lopez, growing up in NYC, his seamstress mother, would ask him to draw flowers for her embroideries. His father was a mannequin maker who had his son apply make-up to the forms and stitch their wigs. 

Metamorphosing pop-art and surrealism with tropical imagery and the glamour of the first Supermodels dancing on top of tables at Les Bains Douche, the famed nightclub in Paris, Lopez’s art created and celebrated an ideal of multi-ethnic girls whose representations had much to do with shaping the standards of late twentieth-century beauty…beyond the pale.

— Antonio Lopez Fashion Illustration Exhibit June 1, 2018 Featuring never before seen artworks from the personal collection of John Stavros on display. Exhibition dates: November. 1, 2018 —