Master of charcoal and image thief

The American artist Robert Longo (*1953) describes himself as an »image thief«: his monumental charcoal drawings are based on photographs, most of which have become part of the collective memory. Longo translates the content into black and white images, thus isolating their message and heightening their impact. An image that has appeared thousands of times in the media and is perceived as familiar and therefore less shocking or important – i.e. has become »unsuitable for the news« – is given back its original pictorial power by Longo. One of his works refers to the attack on a panel discussion on art, blasphemy and freedom of expression in Copenhagen in February 2015, in which the documentary filmmaker Finn Nørgaard was killed. This and other works can be seen from September 4, 2024 to January 26, 2025 in the exhibition Robert Longo at the ALBERTINA in Vienna.

Longo's breakthrough came in the 1980s with his Men in the Cities series. Prior to this, he had also worked with installation, performance and video art during his studies as a result of contact with his fellow student Cindy Sherman. Longo has been regarded as an important artist for decades. He has taken part in the most important art exhibitions – the documenta, the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial – and has received many important prizes, including the Kaiserring of the city of Goslar in 2005. Longo has also experimented with other media, directing several music videos and the cyberpunk feature film Johnny Mnemonic (1995).