Antonio Lopez

Antonio Lopez exhibit at the Suzanne Geiss Gallery

Last week i went to visit the Antonio Lopez exhibit at the Suzanne Geiss gallery in New York City. For those of you who don’t know who he was, Antonio Lopez was a successful illustrator during the 1970’s who worked at publications like Vogue and Womens Wear Daily.

The exhibit showed many sides to Antonio: the illustrator, the photographer, and the camera man. Each side had a similarity; they were all colorful and full of personality.

His illustrations were vibrant and between comic book art and pop art. The went from high end fashion illustrations to pure ethnic homages. But each one of them had a sense of femininity. Even when he drew men, he drew the androgynous man not the masculine man.

The photographs consisted of famous personalities such as Karl Lagerfeld (close friends with Lopez) and Brigitte Bardot. Recording his nights with such people, Antonio Lopez would make sure you knew who that person was when you saw his illustrations. When shooting his models, Lopez didn’t refrain from using painting mediums. Even though the image wasn’t a canvas, he still used it like one. Many would remember the image of Grace Jones popping out of a tub full of blue green water. Yeah that was probably watercolor in there.

As a camera man, Lopez did the same as in his photographs; he recorded the vivid and glamorous moments. One of the recordings shown at the gallery was of him and his crew in Jamaica having a good time. A good time was something that resonated throughout the whole gallery.

Antonio Lopez’ Brigitte Bardot