STORY: Luis Eduardo Quiros (1948-1986) was invited to a weekend at the Tuna Walk house of Jacques Haran, the chairman of my employer, Revillon Furs, in Fire Island Pines where I was on my virgin visit, over July 4th 1980. We fell in immediate lust, a more exotic man I’d never met. Not just an acclaimed artist, he owned a men’s clothing store on 3rd Ave near Gramercy Park called Lugini. Within 3 months I’d quit my job managing Revillon Furs at Saks in Houston and moved to NYC to be with him. I learned my way around the city running from place to place for art supplies. Burnt ochre anyone?
Exuberantly Cuban, Luis lived life to the fullest, painting to his beloved opera every day, stretching canvas, building frames. His paintings were laden with gold, silver and copper leaf. Often depicting geishas, he collected the antique kimonos they wore, and the porcelain foo dogs as well. He painted portraits of the wives of Miami Vice drug lords and Saudi billionaires (bin Laden you say?). Luis learned his craft at the foot of his uncle Felix de Cossio, a noted Cuban artist who painted Fulgencio Batista’s Presidential portrait, and First Lady Betty Ford’s White House portrait.
We spent a whirlwind 5 years together. Luis showed me Miami, Key West, Paris and London. He got sick the year after we split up in 1985, and moved back with his parents in Miami. Things weren’t great between us, but I made a surprise visit to him and we spent a pleasant day together. It was the last time I saw him. Luis died in November of 1986.
I’ve really only got one silly photo of us together and it’s at my home in FL, but I think remembering Luis through his art is more fitting. He made the world a more beautiful place. – Brian Keith Milsap