Robert Longo on the Responsibility That Comes With Being an Artist The artist speaks to Margaret Carrigan

CULTURED: You are well known for your charcoal drawings, and you return to this medium often—what draws you to it as a form of expression?

Robert Longo: For many years, I never really liked charcoal. I found it to be so imprecise and messy. In 1999, during Christmas time, I didn’t have any graphite pencils, but I found a box of old charcoal and I used it to make my first wave drawings. Then my work really took off. Drawing has a unique intimacy of notation and arduous mark-making that begs the viewer to slow down, to look closer at images.

CULTURED: That’s not to say you have been limited to charcoal, since your practice spans film, photography, and music. Is there a throughline that connects all of these different types of media for you?

Longo: In the beginning, shifting mediums was a way of testing if an idea was strong enough. If it was strong enough, it could shift from medium to medium. My work is conceptually based; regardless of the medium, it is motivated primarily by a moral imperative—to report on what it means to be alive right now.

CULTURED: When working with images that are recognizable for their historical weight or political content, do you approach them differently in any way?

Longo: I think making art is an inherently political act. Freedom of subject matter is the basis of modern art. Sometimes I have an image in my mind that I want to make, and then I try to find it in the world, often piecing together different images from TV, newspapers, magazines, Instagram, etc., to form what I envision. A lot of my work is based in frustration and an appeal to the viewer to take a position. I am grateful every day that I have this opportunity and privilege to be an artist, and with that privilege, I feel a responsibility.

CULTURED: As a musician as well as a visual artist, does music play a role in your practice?

Longo: Music has always been the engine of my work. It’s always playing in the studio. I listen to a range of music while working: Yo-Yo Ma, Nick Cave, John Coltrane, Jay-Z. I’m jealous of musicians because I think music can generate pictures with no physical pictorial form.

CULTURED: You’re indelibly part of the Pictures Generation legacy, but what does it mean to you to be a part of the East End artist legacy as well?

Longo: My family moved to Long Island when I was 2 years old. I grew up surfing—I was obsessed with it, the whole culture of it. Now I consider it to be my home base. My wife, documentary filmmaker Sophie Chahinian, brought me back out there and reminded me how beautiful it is. I’m inspired by the rich history of artists making work in response to this place, and I’m grateful to be a part of the continuation of that dialogue.