Robert Longo burst onto the New York art scene as a brash 25-year-old with âMen in the Cities,â his iconic 1983 large-scale charcoal drawings of businessmen posing in uncanny contortions. âI always imagine that I want to make art that is going to kill you,â he said in 1984. âWhether itâs going to do it visually or physically, Iâll take either way.â Longo works and reworks his charcoal into thick-textured surfaces, giving his velvety drawings deep, blackened expanses and sharply contrasting whites; his forms are at once representational and softly elusive. Having been fascinated with popular culture as a child, Longo centers his practice on transposing images and the resulting transformation of meaning, linking him with the Pictures Generation. âAn artist should know art history,â he says. âShock value only lasts so long.â His recent works have included series depicting women in burkas, ocean waves, nuclear explosions, views of Sigmund Freudâs apartment, and zoo animals in cages.
