Mirror of Memory Robert Longo in conversation with Claudia Bodin
US artist Robert Longo captures world criticism and wonder on paper in huge, hyper-realistic charcoal drawings. On the occasion of his major solo exhibition in Vienna, he reveals the stories behind selected works.
Robert Longo's team arrives shortly after ten o'clock. Black dust has covered the once white floor of the loft like an oily skin, leaving traces on the walls. Charcoal powder is stored in jars or stands ready in bowls next to brushes, charcoal and graphite pencils. Only the rust-red scaffolding for working on large formats adds colour to the black-and-white film that seems to be running in Longo's studio in downtown Manhattan. The soundtrack in the studio, which the artist has been running since the mid-1980s, is provided by the post-rock band ‘Godspeed You! BlackEmperor’. Above the sink hangs a framed T-shirt with a photo of US artist Lynda Benglis, naked and holding a dildo in her hand in a provocatively feminist gesture. The 71-year-old Longo, dressed in black with grey glasses and greying hair, has a coffee (black) and gets to work with his assistants.
On the walls, charcoal drawings in various stages are waiting to be worked on: a picture of a refugee camp surrounded by barbed wire, which Longo describes as the ‘forecourt of hell’, a battered US flag, police officers equipped with truncheons and visors. Even an innocent peony in close-up has something monstrous about it due to the black and white and the monumental size. ‘If nature had a chance, it would destroy us,’ comments Longo dryly. This autumn, the US artist is opening an exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna, looking back on his 40-year career and responding to wars, protest movements, the migration crisis in Europe and climate change with more contemporary drawings. The show begins with Longo's famous series Men in the Cities, for which he drew artist friends such as his then partner Cindy Sherman in dance poses and contorted postures in 1981. With this series, the artist captured New York's underground punk culture and a moment between dance, trance and death. He had also discovered the medium of drawing for himself.
