What Goya, Eisenstein and Longo have in common: an artist's guide to the exhibition in Garage. Pilots, sharks, nuclear explosions and much, much more

American painter and sculptor whose main medium of expression is charcoal drawing on paper. Born January 7, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

"I belong to a generation that grew up on TV. TV was my babysitter. Art is a reflection of what we grew up on, what surrounded us as children. Do you know Anselm Kiefer? He grew up in post-war Germany, lying in ruins. And all this is us we see in his art. In my art, we see black and white images, as if descended from the TV screen, on which I grew up, "says .

Robert Longo in the project "Evidence" in "Garage".

The exhibition "Testimony: Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Longo" has opened at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. All three artists were innovators of their time, they all thought about the time, they were all passionate about black and white images. Robert was always interested in artists who witnessed their time and documented everything that happened. In the works of Eisenstein and Goya, one sees evidence of the eras in which they lived. Longo admired their work.
And in 2016, the chief curator of the museum, Keith Fowl, together with Robert Longo, put together an exhibition from the archives of Eisenstein and Goya from the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.

A work of art is always about the beauty that the artist sees in the real world. I try to make people think when looking at my paintings. In a way, my paintings are designed to freeze a bit the endless pipeline of images that appear every second in the world. I try to slow it down by turning the photo into a charcoal painting. And besides, everyone draws - here you are talking to me on the phone and probably sketching something on a napkin - there is something basic and ancient in these lines, and I collide this with photographs taken sometimes in a second - on a phone or a soap box. And then I spend months drawing one image.

Robert Longo was born in 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up on Long Island. As a child, he was greatly influenced by popular culture—film, television, magazines, and comics—which largely shaped his artistic style.

In the late 1970s, Longo performed experimental punk music in New York City rock clubs for Robert Longo's Menthol Wars. He is a co-founder of the avant-garde group X-Patsys (with his wife Barbara Zukova, Jon Kessler, Knox Chandler, Sean Conley, Jonathan Kane and Anthony Coleman).

In the 1980s, Longo directed several music videos, including the song The One I Love by R.E.M. , Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order and Peace Sells by Megadeth.

In 1992, the artist acted as the director of one of the episodes of the series "Tales from the Crypt" called "This will kill you" (This'll Kill Ya). Longo's most famous directorial work is the 1995 film

(English) Robert Longo, R. 1953) is an American contemporary artist known for his work in various genres.

Biography

Robert Longo was born on January 7, 1953 in Brooklyn (New York), USA. He studied at the University of North Texas (Denton), but dropped out. Later he studied sculpture under the direction of Leonda Fincke. In 1972 he received a grant to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and left for Italy. After returning to the United States, he entered Buffalo State College, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1975. At the same time I met with a photographer Cindy Sherman.

In the late 70s, Robert Longo became interested in organizing performances (for example, Sound Distance of a Good Man). Such works were usually accompanied by the creation of a series of photographs and videos, which were then shown as separate works and parts of installations. At the same time, Longo played in a number of New York punk rock bands and even acted as a co-founder of the Hallwalls gallery. In 1979-81 the artist also worked on a series of graphic works "People in the cities".

In 1987, Longo introduced the series conceptual sculptures "Ghost Objects" (Object Ghosts). The works from this series are an attempt to rethink and stylize objects from science fiction films (for example, "Nostromo" - that was the name of the ship in the movie Alien). A similar idea (but embodied with real props that were used on the set) can be found in the work of Dory Budor.

In 1988, Longo began work on the Black Flag series. The first piece in the series was a US flag painted in graphite and visually similar to a painted wooden box. Subsequent works were sculptures of the US flag made of bronze, each of which was accompanied by a signature title (for example, "give us back our suffering" - "give us back our suffering").

In the late 80s, Robert Longo also began making short films (for example, Arena Brains - "Geeks in the Arena", 1987). In 1995, Longo directed the science fiction film Johnny Mnemonic. The film is considered a cult classic for the cyberpunk genre. Keanu Reeves played the lead role.

In the 90s and 2000s, Robert Longo continued to create his hyper-realistic images. Works from the Superheroes (1998) or Ophelia (2002) series look like photographs or sculptures, but are ink paintings. Pictures of the series Balcony (2008-09) and The Mysteries (2009) are painted in charcoal.

In 2010, Robert Longo created a series of photographs in the style of "People in the cities" for the Italian brand Bottega Veneta (Bottega Veneta).

In 2016-17 The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the Testimonies exhibition, which showcased some of Robert Longo's work to the public.

Robert Longo currently lives in New York, USA. Since 1994, he has been married to German actress Barbara Sukowa. The couple has three children.

Pilots, sharks, sexy girls, dancers, the ocean, impressive explosions - this is what New York artist Robert Longo depicts. His illustrations are extremely deep, mystical, powerful and magnetic. Perhaps this effect is achieved due to the black and white picture, which the author carefully writes out using charcoal.

Robert Longo was born in 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. Talking about himself, the artist never forgets to mention that he loves cinema, comics, magazines and has a weakness for television, which have a considerable influence on his work. Robert Longo draws most of the themes for his paintings from what he has seen and read before. The author has always loved to draw, and although he received a bachelor's degree in sculpture, this does not prevent him from doing what he loves, but on the contrary. Some of the artist's drawings are very reminiscent of sculptures, he likes those outlines that come out from under the hand. There is some power in this.

The main exhibitions of paintings by Robert Longo are held at the Museum of Art in Los Angeles, as well as at the Museum of Modern Art in Chicago.