Robert Longo
Until 26 January 2025
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THE ALBERTINA MUSEUM, VIENNA
Robert Longo (*1953, Brooklyn) is known for his monumental hyperrealistic works: powerful, dynamic charcoal drawings whose virtuoso technique and the visual force of the motifs mesmerize the observer.
For his models, Longo uses photographs that record dramatic situations at the moment of their greatest tension. The artist is concerned here with the depiction of power—in nature, politics, history. He utilizes visual material that has been reproduced thousands of times, and which has long been a part of pop culture, of our collective visual memory. Longo isolates and reduces the motifs so as to raise their visual impact to a higher power. By enlarging the subject and intensifying the lighting into a dramatic chiaroscuro, we find ourselves before gigantic, previously unseen theatrical images. Longo draws on existing images, references reality secondhand, and creates impressive “copies” of the original black-and-white photographs, which pale beside their transformation into colossal charcoal drawings.
The dramatic lighting and shadow effects of the charcoal drawings emphasize the objects’ plasticity and the spatial depth. They make the motif appear as real as it is unreal. The deep black of the charcoal rubbed into the paper swallows up all of the light. Paradoxically, Longo is ultimately capable, like no one else, of evoking brightness and radiant light, transparency, and differentiated materiality with the blackness of charcoal.
On view from 4 September 2024 until 26 January 2025 at the ALBERTINA Museum in Vienna.
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Related
The Limited Edition to the exhibition
Robert Longo
O.T. (Exterior Apartment Door with Nameplate and Peephole,1938), 2024
Inkjet on paper
Size: 40,5 x 27,3 cm
Editions: 30, numbered and signed
EUR 3.500
Exclusive price for Friends of the Albertina: EUR 3.150
Robert Longo: Untitled (Protest for Mahsa Amini; Iranian Embassy, Brussels; September 23, 2022), 2024
177.8 × 224.2 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Phantom Vessel), 2008
270 × 480 cm, Charcoal on paper
(Hall Collection © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo
Robert Longo: Untitled (Ping), 2007
177.8 × 198.1 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (White Tiger), 2011
240 × 177.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Private collection, Basel | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Eric), 1981
244 × 152.5 cm, Charcoal and graphite on paper
(Collection Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg · Paris | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Bodyhammer: Uzi, 1993
243.8 × 121.9 cm, Graphite and charcoal on paper
(Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Face), 2001
180.3 × 304.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Herzeleide, Barbara's Eyes), 2012
243.8 × 177.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Private collection in Germany | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Iceberg for C.D.F.), 2015–2016
304.8 × 510.5 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Private collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Raft at Sea), 2016–2017
355.6 × 713.7 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (The Haunting), 2005
226.1 × 365.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Exterior Apartment Door with Nameplate and Peephole, May 1938), 2002
243.8 × 152.4 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Exterior Street Door, Berggasse 19, Vienna 1938), 2000
243.8 × 152.4 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Hall Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Western Wall), 2011
304.8 × 825.5 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Collection Thaddaeus Ropac. London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Nagasaki, B), 2003
243.8 × 182.9 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Ukrainian and Russian Tank Battle), 2023
243.8 × 365.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
Robert Longo: Untitled (Copenhagen, February 14, 2015), 2017
246.5 × 292.1 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper
(Private collection in Germany | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
177.8 × 224.2 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
270 × 480 cm, Charcoal on paper (Hall Collection © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo
177.8 × 198.1 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
240 × 177.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Private collection, Basel | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
244 × 152.5 cm, Charcoal and graphite on paper (Collection Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg · Paris | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
243.8 × 121.9 cm, Graphite and charcoal on paper (Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
180.3 × 304.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
243.8 × 177.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Private collection in Germany | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
304.8 × 510.5 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Private collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
355.6 × 713.7 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
226.1 × 365.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
243.8 × 152.4 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
243.8 × 152.4 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Hall Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
304.8 × 825.5 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Collection Thaddaeus Ropac. London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
243.8 × 182.9 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
243.8 × 365.8 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio
246.5 × 292.1 cm, Charcoal on mounted paper (Private collection in Germany | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024)
Photo: Robert Longo Studio