| Tony Viramontes | |
| Background information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1960 |
| Origin | Los Angeles, USA |
| Died | 1988 |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Related acts | Arcadia Janet Jackson |
| Arcadia related | |
Tony Viramontes (born 1960 in Los Angeles, USA) was an American artist, whose work included paintings for Arcadia's So Red the Rose album.
Biography[]
Tony was born in 1960 in Los Angeles, USA, of Mexican parents. He studied fine art and photography in New York, before switching to fashion and beauty illustration. This interest led him inevitably to Europe, where he worked for magazines and fashion houses in Italy and France. When Viramontes made his debut in the late 1970's, his hard and direct style was a marked contrast to the prevailing soft pastel school of fashion illustration. He scored an immediate success, rapidly acquiring the kind of prestigious editorial commissions too often allocated to photographers, from Lei in Italy, Vogue in the USA, The Face in Britain, as well as Marie Claire and Le Monde in France. Viramontes' elegant art is fused with humour and fantasy, he found his inspiration everywhere, in the street, in music and dance.
In 1984, an exhibition of his work was held in Paris. He had been experimenting with photo-illustration, drawing over photographs and had planned to direct films during this period.
In 1985 the image for the cover of Arcadia's So Red the Rose album, as well as the portraits of the band contained within were painted by Tony.
Tony Viramontes had great artistic potential, but died in 1988 at the age of only 28.
A 2013 book called Bold, Beautiful and Damned: The World of 1980s Fashion Illustrator Tony Viramontes features 250 illustrations, including artwork for Arcadia with comments from Nick Rhodes.
