Fans Pay a Tearful Tribute to Antonio Lopez

An estimated 2,000 people, among them Tina Chow, Irene Cara and Princess Stephanie, turned out recently at the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica to salute the works of a legendary artist-illustrator. Missing from the celebration was the artist himself, Antonio Lopez, who friends said was in town but ill.

Several days later, 44-year-old Antonio, responsible since the ‘60s for interpreting and inspiring fashion trends, died at UCLA Medical Center.

Farewell Party

In retrospect, it was a fitting farewell party. Guests, and that included the celebrities, seemed more intent on seeing than being seen. Socializing was second to viewing as people moved from wall to wall, room to room, sipping wine and drinking in the art, offered for sale for the first time in America.

Gallery owner Berman said he felt “privileged” to be staging the exhibit, adding that Antonio’s choice of Santa Monica over his home base in New York “had a lot to do with the fact Susan is here.”

He was referring to Los Angeles designer Susan Baraz, Antonio’s first model, who, in a sense, brought her friend to the party. Below her backless gold mesh top, she wore a white leather miniskirt autographed profusely by Antonio in gold ink.

“We worked together in New York and Paris,” she reminisced. “He always became very attached to his models, and they in turn always adored him. He had magic in him, and what was even more magical was his ability to surround himself by people who could feel it.”

A similar exhibit, taking place in Munich, “has art students arriving by the busloads,” Baraz said. “And he’s sold to two museums in Europe.”

Locally, the 180-piece collection includes huge canvases created for Bloomingdale’s in New York, drawings for the 1985 book, “Antonio’s Tales From the Thousand and One Nights,” illustrations of Grace Jones, Billy Idol, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner and Patti LaBelle for Playboy magazine, the “City Warriors” series for L’Uomo Vogue and the recently completed fine arts series, “Dictators’ Wives,” which expresses Antonio’s anti-fashion sentiments about women such as Imelda Marcos and Michele Duvalier.

Not long ago, he did the cover for singer-songwriter Cara’s new “Carasmatic” album. The night of the reception, the award-winning entertainer described the renowned artist as “just a lovely guy and very talented.”

Art director and longtime friend Bob Starr was in from New York for the huge party and recalled “the great billboards for GTE” the two worked on in 1973.

“He made telephones a fashion and design item before phone marts were ever heard of,” Starr said. “He brought them outside the realm of utility.”

Antonio’s dedicated, energetic commitment to the careers of his models (women such as Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange) and his work with art students around the world led Starr to comment: “I don’t know anyone in his business, or related business, who has done so much for so many people.”

Berman, a fine arts dealer in the throes of exhibiting an unusual talent, was having a wonderful time, he said. “A lot of erudite people come to this gallery, and they certainly will not consider all of this fine art. But I think Antonio’s work is so good, I don’t care. I call it the art of fashion. This is a museum show. He has documented our time in history. He is the best today at what he’s doing.”

Date Extended

The exhibit, which opened March 10, had been scheduled to close Thursday, but is now extended until April 15. Art students, Berman said, had been noticeable among the crowds. They often looked at the paintings and drawings “with tears in their eyes, because there is nobody like him.” They were the ones who didn’t know Antonio was ill, he explained. “The ones who did, really had tears in their eyes.”

After Antonio’s March 17 death, attributed by UCLA Medical Center to Kaposi’s sarcoma and AIDS, Baraz referred to “a career that ended too soon. He was going in a whole new direction. He had finally taken the plunge away from fashion into fine art.”