Antonio Joseph Mendez was a man with many stories. Born in
1940, in Eureka, Nevada, current population 610 persons and once labeled “the
loneliest town in America, he arrived in Denver in his early teens. After a
short stint at the University of Colorado, he was employed as a technical drawing
artist
and did commission art on the side. His “legacy” to Denver are two
large oil paintings of early Denver which he did for the no longer existing
Park Lane Hotel in 1964.
Aerial photograph showing the Park Lane Hotel and looking south
at Washington Park. Circa mid 19960s before the hotel was demolished.
courtesy of Stephen H.Hart Library and Research Center, History Colorado.
Denver Street Scene by Tony Mendez, 1964
Courtesy of Mr. Simon Lofts, WorkAbility
The Mendez paintings are early Denver street scenes which
Mendez painted from photographs. They are very bright oil on masonite and were
cleaned for display. They were displayed
at the Park Lane for only a few years and apparently were carefully packed for
storage.
Early Denver Street Scene by Tony Mendez, 1964
Courtesy of Mr. Simon Lofts, WorkAbility
When the hotel was demolished in the late 1960s, the 300
pound paintings were stored in a warehouse until acquired by a Denver man and
stored in his garage for years. After Mendez’s death in January 2019, the
paintings were rescued by Simon Lofts, a co-founder of WorkAbility, a
co-working space located near the Colorado Capitol Building. The paintings are
now displayed in the Workability offices and open to the public for viewing.
But …. there is more to this story. Who was this man,
Mendez, and what makes his paintings of interest? In 1965 while working as a
technical artist for Martin Marietta in Denver, Mendez answered a blind
newspaper ad which turned out to have been placed by the Central Intelligence
Agency. Hired as an artist to specialize in counterfeits and forgeries, Mendez
rose higher in the CIA.
When Islamic militants took over the US Embassy in Tehran in
1979, six American diplomats escaped and were sheltered by Canadian diplomats
until a dramatic rescue plan devised by Mendez brought them out of Iran. This escape was depicted in a 1997 movie, “Argo”, which won three Oscars. The
American diplomats were posed as a Canadian film crew, and spirited out of the
country with Canadian identities by Mendez himself! No surprise, then that
Mendez became known as a specialist in “exfiltration”.
Mendez continued to paint before and after his retirement in
1990. He wrote with others, including his wife Jonna, four books on the CIA,
disguises, and the Argo operation. You can see Mendez’s Denver Street Paintings
at the WorkAbility offices, 1576 Sherman Street in Denver.
Roger Doherty
