A passionate line of illustrations.

• Author: Suro, Federico
• Position: Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez

Until his early death in 1987, Antonio Lopez, known simply as Antonio, was the world's foremost fashion illustrator. His vigorous style, synonymous with dynamic line and vibrant color, conjures up images of agressive good looks and a frenzied baroque lifestyle characteristic of the second half of the twentieth century. The indelible mark of this Puerto Rican laureate artist was underscored last year when the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) hosted an encyclopedic exposition in New York City entitled "Art Fashion." Focusing on the pantheon illustrators of this century - everyone from Paul Iribe to Cecil Beaton - this event showed Antonio to be one of the last great voices of a dying art.

In the 1920s and 1930s Erte and Benito (from Russia and Spain respectively) created styles that were widely imitated and were definitive reflections of their times. In their hands illustration took an unprecedented turn. Throughout the world, from Berlin to Buenos Aires, the smart set witnessed the emergence of their immediately recognizable creations. Likewise, in the 1960s Antonio established himself as the reigning arbiter, giving fashion a much needed impetus. As art historian Herbert Muschamp succinctly put it, "Antonio used enchantment to break the spells of racial prejudice. The enchantment was that of beauty ... he never stopped looking for it and never stopped finding it. " Antonio also summed up the moment through his unmistakable iconography, becoming the embodiment of everything that was "in" from the 1960s to the 1980s. He often used his magic to transform the work of well-known clients such as Rudi Gernreich, Yves St. Laurent, Valentino and Zandra Rhodes.

Although FIT did a major Antonio retrospective in 1975, a more comprehensive one was arranged posthumously in 1987. Starting in New York, this show, which includes his commercial as well as fantasy works, has toured Tokyo, Milan, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. This fall it is slated to travel in Australia to Melbourne, Sidney and Brisbane. Arrangements are being made for the show to open in Germany and France in 1993. Like the revivals of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, the return of the '60s and '70s is already here and, not surprisingly, Antonio is one of the prime luminaries.

Antonio's early youth was decidedly more sober than his fastpaced, globe-trotting latter life. He was born in the Puerto Rican farm country of Utuado in 1943. The marriage of his parents, Francisco Lopez and Maria Luisa Orama, was arranged by their families when they were 17 and 14 respectively. A precocious child, the first of three sons, Antonio was always attracted to visual things. He started to draw at the age of two, teaching himself the essentials of a craft that only needed to be elaborated. Antonio's mother was his first model. A seamstress by profession, she was an extraordinary beauty and the child loved to sketch her while she was busily making clothes. He would arrange artfully the leftover cloth she gave him on makeshift stick figures and then draw them. He quickly developed an understanding of fabric, learning to transform its illusion onto the flat surface of paper by carefully observing how garments were worn. Another early influence was the pageantry of the Catholic Church with its many festive holidays and dramatic processions such as those of Holy Week. Antonio's roving eye took note of the blue of the Madonna, the red of the Sacred Heart and the purples that seemed to permeate the entire spectacle. "I was brought up a Catholic, but since my father was a spiritual healer I was also influenced by white magic and its mystical aura. " Those who knew him well say that the elder Lopez, who was a farmer by profession, was primarily a santero and a highly respected one. This coupling of orthodox Catholicism with native folkloric sensibility accounts for much of the dynamism and radiance...