ROBERT LONGO (1953)
Robert Longo was born in 1953 in
Brooklyn, New York. He was raised on suburban Long
Island where as a youth he participated in various arts
activities from a very young age. Longo developed an
early fascination with all forms of mass media;
especially movies, television, magazines, and comic
books. These hallmark influences are still incorporated
into the art work that he is producing today.
Robert Longo's works are filled
with deep emotions that are both primitive and at the
same time self-conscious. One of the quintessential
artists of the 1980s, Longo's "Men in the Cities" series
portrays a group of sharply dressed businessmen writhing
in contorted agony.
Robert Longo's art training and
background are very diverse. His higher education began
at the University of Northern Texas, in the rural town
of Denton. Like so many other creative and ingenious
people, Longo excelled in several different art forms.
After a break from university life, Longo began studying
sculpture under the guidance of Leonda Finke, who
encouraged the young artist to pursue a career in the
visual arts. In 1972, Longo received a grant to study at
the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. Upon his
return to New York, Longo enrolled at the State
University College in Buffalo where he received a BFA in
1975. In college, Longo and a group of his friends
established an avant-garde art gallery in their co-op
building, which was originally a converted ice factory.
Through his gallery efforts, Longo was introduced to
many local and New York City artists. Eventually Longo
moved to New York City and immersed himself in the
underground art scene of the seventies.
Although he studied sculpture,
drawing remained Longo's favorite form of self-
expression. However, the sculptural influence pervades
his drawing technique,
as Longo's "portraits" have a distinctive chiseled line
that seems to give the drawings a three dimensional
quality, Longo uses graphite like clay. He molds it
to create images like the writhing, dancing figures in
his seminal 'Men in the Cities" series.
The artist has been the subject of
major retrospective exhibitions at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art in 1989 and at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago in 1990. Well into the next
century, Longo will continue to be one of the most
highly regarded living contemporary artists and print
makers working in the international art market.
In order to create works such as
Barbara and Ralph, Longo first projects photographs of
his subjects onto paper and traces the figures in
graphite, stripping away all details of the background.
After he records the basic contours, his assistant,
Diane Shea, continues work on the figure for about a
week, filling in the details. Next, Longo goes back into
the drawing, using a combination of graphite and
charcoal, to provide as he says, "all the cosmetic
work." At this point, he makes a number of changes in
the figure. Some are subtle: just a little more
definition to a shoulder, perhaps, or a darker cast to
the shoes. Others are radical: a subject, who in the
original photo was wearing jeans, may finally sport a
pair of formal black trousers in the drawing. Longo
continues to work on the drawing making numerous
adjustments until, about a week later, it is completed.
The process of making a lithograph
is equally involved. Studio assistants do much of the
basic work. Though his use of assistants has on occasion
been controversial, the practice has several precedents,
from the old masters with their workshop minions to the
minimalists whose creations involve the talents of
industrial fabricators.
Few artists have enjoyed the
international visibility of Robert Longo and fewer still
have generated as much thought -provoking commentary
about their own art and about the state of contemporary
culture at large. His original art is immediately
recognizable by many who have seen only few examples of
it. |