Vivacious, Voracious Viramontes

Fashion Illustrator Extraordinaire.

When I first discovered Tony Viramontes’ work in 1985 I didn’t know that he was dying, that he only had 3 years left to live.

Because there was no internet, I just presumed he was healthy and working and would carry on forever. I don’t even know how or when I found out that he had died of an AIDS-related illness in 1988. I was devastated though.

All I knew in 1985, was that I was very interested in fashion illustration and Viramontes was a superstar to me. I had seen his work in Vogue and torn out the pages and stuck them on my wall at art college. I stuck a page from Vogue (1984) into my dissertation in my final year. My dissertation was focused on my own figure drawing, and Viramontes was one of my main influences. He was the first artist to influence me to stop drawing people “just for fun” but for a purpose, as fashion illustrations instead.

I tried very hard to copy Viramontes’ work and his style. Here are some pages from my original dissertation (1988), they explore my frustration at being unable to draw like my hero:

An extract from my dissertation, 1988

Another extract from my dissertation, 1988

A page from Vogue magazine, 1984, and my drawing 1988

How quaint is the type-written page with the sellotaped-in drawings?! I remember having to go to Prontaprint to get photocopies for some images, and they were £4 each for an A4 colour page! That’s why my dissertation is mostly comprised of wonky type with my original pictures sellotaped in.

Anyway. Back to Viramontes.

Tony Viramontes was a fervent, prolific artist- amassing thousands of drawings even though his career only lasted 5 years. His images display a confidence that comes with creating every drawing perfectly right first time, although that is never the case, it just looks as though it is. The secret is to create stacks of drawings with a flurry of lines and then choose the most accurate one. He said, “Of the hundreds of sketches I might make for one drawing, it’s almost always the first which states the essential.”

Viramontes was born in 1956 in LA, to Mexican parents. His voracious appetite for art and fashion led him to persuade his fellow students to model for him, though his masterstroke was encouraging Rene Russo (his favourite model) to pose for him. They became friends, which helped to open many doors and enhance Viramontes’ career.

Viramontes attended art schools in LA and New York and was influenced by other notable fashion illustrators with whom he worked and partied. His work always looks so distinctive to me, as if he were born drawing, was totally self-taught and was the leader that others followed. He strikes me as being the original, and the others were copies.

In Manhattan Viramontes met Antonio Lopez, an established fashion illustrator about whom I shall write more sometime. Lopez acted as mentor and friend to Viramontes, their artistic styles have similarities but I think it is easy to tell them apart- Viramontes has that simple fluidity of line whereas Lopez has more accessories (background colour-blocks, extra squiggles etc).

In 1983 Viramontes left the US for Paris. This was a good move, enabling him to promote and cultivate his own style. His first illustrations were published in Lei, Per Lui and British Vogue (perhaps the page I tore out was his first foray into British Vogue?). He cited Cocteau, Schiele and Man Ray as his influences, which was a wise, sophisticated choice for an American in Europe. This perhaps helped Viramontes to procure editorial work for La Mode En Peinture, a fashion illustration magazine with a similar ethic to the Gazette du Bon Ton, which I wrote about in my Erte articles.

Viramontes’ colour palette began with red and black, with splashes of gold. His earlier work favoured rapid dashes of charcoal, watercolour and pencil, thrusting forth his flamboyant men/women in a burst of aggressive energy. There are some of his original drawings available to view at the V&A collection archive, a link to a Viramontes drawing is here Viramontes at the V&A . If you have time to browse the collection, or to book and make a visit in person it would be well worth it- and not just for Viramontes, there are thousands of other original works available.

Next week I shall explore how Viramontes expanded his ideas beyond fashion illustration and the materials he used.

Here are some examples of how he is still inspiring me to this day, though I’ve moved on to an Ipad and included my cats Mitzi and Olive. I bet Viramontes would have loved an ipad!