The fashion Puerto Rican illustrator Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion at El Museo del Barrio, New York
Antonio López,
Juan Ramos & Model, Carnegie Hall Studio, NYC,Photograph,
Courtesy of the
Estate of Antonio López & Juan Ramos.
El Museo del Barrio is pleased to present an exhibition on
the work of the fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez (1943-1987). This exhibition
will explore various aspects of the work of this important artist, developing
thematic sections that focus on high fashion illustration, his relationship to
particular models, his shoe and jewelry designs, and images of people he came
to know and love from the streets of New York City.
Antonio Lopez was born in Utuado, Puerto Rico on February
11, 1943. The family migrated to New York City when Antonio was seven and he
attended P.S. 77 on East 104th Street. To keep her son off the streets, Lopez’s
mother, a seamstress, would ask him to draw flowers for her embroideries. He
also helped his father, a mannequin maker, to apply make-up and stitch wigs on
the figures. At the age of twelve, Lopez earned a scholarship to the prestigious
Traphagen School of Fashion in New York, which provided Saturday programs for
children. He went on to attend the High School of Art and Design. Upon
graduation, Lopez was accepted to the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Antonio López,
Grace Jones, 1982, Pencil & watercolor, 12” x 18”,
Courtesy of the Estate
of Antonio López & Juan Ramos
Lopez went on to illustrate fashions for Women’s Wear Daily
and The New York Times and eventually became a free-lance artist for many of
the top fashion publications, including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Andy
Warhol’s Interview. He is known to have “discovered” or formed lasting friendships
with women like Pat Cleveland, Tina Chow, Jerry Hall, Grace Jones and Jessica
Lange. He collaborated with the noted designer Charles James, creating an
illustrated inventory of Charles’ fashion designs (now in the collection of the
Chicago History Museum). With his friend and business partner, Juan Ramos,
Lopez moved to Paris where they both worked with Karl Lagerfeld and many other
designers.
Through his work, Lopez made great strides in exploring and
representing the ethnic or racialized body within the world of high fashion.
His imagery helped to develop and underscore a new canon of beauty throughout
the 1970s and 1980s. He died in Los Angeles of complications related to AIDS on
March 17, 1987 at the age of 44.
Antonio López,
Oscar de La Renta gowns, 1985, pencil & watercolor, 22” x 30”,
Courtesy of
the Estate of Antonio López and Juan Ramos
A team of art historians, scholars of fashion history,
gender and communications studies and other experts will participate in the
organization of this exhibition. The show’s co-curators are Rocío
Aranda-Alvarado, Curator at El Museo del Barrio and Amelia Malagamba-Ansótegui,
a scholar from Arizona State University and University of Texas San Antonio. In
2003, Dr. Malagamba wrote an important essay on Antonio Lopez for the
Smithsonian Institution, which continues to be a key text today for the ways in
which it explores Antonio’s attentiveness to race, gender and the body.
Antonio Lopez, Carol Labrie, NYC, 1969, Marker and color
overlay, 18” x 24”,
Courtesy of the Estate of Antonio Lopez & Juan Ramos
A selection of works in the exhibition come from the Estate
of Antonio Lopez and Juan Ramos, directed by Paul Caranicas. Additional works
are borrowed from various private collections in New York City.
Exhibition: Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion runs through November
26, 2016 at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029
Fotografías
y texto extraídas de la pagina web, Facebook o comunicado de prensa de El Museo
del Barrio a quienes agradecemos su colaboración, otras fotografías se tomaron de la pagina
web o Facebook del o los artistas Las
imágenes se publican exclusivamente para la promoción de la exposición, la
galería y los artistas y está prohibida su reproducción en cualquier medio.
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