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Robert Longo Figurative Sculptures

American, b. 1953

The drawings by artist Robert Longo are a sensory experience: They are monumental, detailed and hard-hitting in their subject matter, which often includes critiques of power, social unrest and consumer capitalism.

Longo has spent his career exploring mediums as varied as the Photorealistic charcoal drawings for which he is best known and film direction. In all of his work, however, he draws inspiration from his deep background in sculpture. “I always think that drawing is a sculptural process. I always feel like I’m carving the image out rather than painting the image. I’m carving it out with erasers and tools like that,” he once said.

The Long Island, New York, native attended high school with a man who was shot at Kent State University while protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War in 1970, and the famous image of this man lying dead on the ground influenced Longo so deeply that he began to consider all art political. Longo attended Buffalo State College, where he met and became friends with artist Cindy Sherman, and later the two moved to New York City together.

Longo’s revered work includes his charcoal and graphite “Men in the Cities” drawings. The Photorealist series, which debuted at Metro Pictures gallery in Manhattan in 1981, depicted people in formal business clothing. Posing in suspended animation in unusual contortions, the figures take on a choreographic quality and represent the career-minded “yuppies” of the era.

“Men in the Cities” was inspired by punk rock music and decades later has been cited as a visual reference for the opening sequence of the popular television drama Mad Men. The work was among the most recognizable and iconic of the Pictures Generation — the movement by artists who came of age in the 1970s and were disillusioned by the social and political conditions of the time. In 2014, Longo created 12 charcoal drawings for a series titled “Gang of Cosmos,” which were black-and-white depictions of famous Abstract Expressionist works by artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Lee Krasner.

Through his provocative, detailed and highly precise prints, drawings, photography and sculpture, Longo continues to challenge traditional sources of power and authority.

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Artist: Robert Longo
Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo  Bronze Sculpture
Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo  Bronze Sculpture

Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo Bronze Sculpture

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Very rare cast. (edition of 1 or 2) This work was featured in an article "The Appropriation of Marginal Art in the 1980s Author: Donald Kuspit Source: American Art, Vol. 5, No. 1/2 (...

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1980s Post-Modern Robert Longo Figurative Sculptures

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Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo  Bronze Sculpture
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Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo Bronze Sculpture

By Robert Longo

Located in Surfside, FL

Very rare cast. (edition of 1 or 2) This work was featured in an article "The Appropriation of Marginal Art in the 1980s Author: Donald Kuspit Source: American Art, Vol. 5, No. 1/2 (Winter - Spring, 1991), pp. 132-141 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This appears to be modeled after a figure by HR Giger. it was cast by Polich Tallix Foundry. Born in Brooklyn, 1953 Robert Longo became synonymous with American pictorial art during the 80s, his ambitious large-scale works seemingly synchronized with the booming economy and boisterous values of the Reagan era. In 1974, whilst studying at State University College, Buffalo, Longo co-founded Hallwalls. As a studio and exhibition space for contemporary art, Hallwalls was the precursor of Longo's ongoing concern for utilizing art's multi-disciplinary potential. His partner in this venture was Cindy ShermanAfter graduation Longo showed in 1979 at The Kitchen, a downtown space which encouraged artistic experimentation and collaboration. In the following year, he had his first one-person exhibition in Europe, at Studio d'Arte Cannaviello in Milan. Since then, Longo has shown continuously in Europe and America. However, it was his first solo exhibition at Metro Pictures, New York, in 1981 that brought him international critical acclaim. This installation of Men in the Cities presented his charcoal, graphite and dye studies of office workersThis interruption of a smooth linear reading, notably used in Dada and Surrealist collage, undermines assumptions, whether they be cultural, social or political. In 'Men in the Cities' Longo cuts anonymous people from their environments, then splices their portraits in amongst blocks of buildings. The association is made between the private and the corporate, the human and the industrial, the fragile and the impervious. Engagement with the social and political can be seen in Longo's work throughout the 80s, setting him apart from fellow artists David Salle and Julian Schnabel. Following a major retrospective at The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1989, Longo began to focus on single themes, rather than montages of associations. Furthermore, he moved to Paris the following year. The 'Black Flag' series resulted from this change in direction, and location. Taking the Stars and Stripes as his subject, Longo re-worked the treatment of the spangled banner by Pop artist Jasper Johns. J Longo is a multi talented artist who works equally successfully in a variety of media. He is equally well known as a sculptor and film director as he is as a draftsman/painter, and like the best of the contemporary film directors, his aim is to seduce, elucidate, transform, and instruct. SELECTED PERMANENT COLLECTIONS Art Institute of Chicago, USA Guggenheim Museum, New York Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA Musee d'Art Contemporain, Montreal, Canada Museum of Modern Art, New York Saatchi Collection, London Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tate Gallery, London Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 'Das Magellan Projekt', Kunsthalle Tubingen, Germany, 1997 'Das Magellan Projekt', Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1997 'Das Magellan Projekt', Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany, 1997 'Robert Longo: Kreuze', Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, 1996 'Robert Longo: A Retrospective', The Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1995 'Robert Longo: A Retrospective', Ashikaga City Museum, Kirin Plaza Art Space, Osaka, Japan, 1995 'Faith in Zero' Project: Galerie Daniel Templon, Galerie Antoine Candau, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, A.B. Galleries, Galerie Gordon Pym et Fils, Paris, France, 1991 'Black Flags', Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, 1990 'Robert Longo 1976 - 1989', The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1989 'Robert Longo 1976 - 1989', Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA, 1989 'Robert Longo 1976 - 1989', Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, USA, 1989 'Sequences/Men in the Cities', University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, USA, 1986 'Sequences/Men in the Cities', Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, USA, 1986 'Sequences/Men in the Cities', Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, 1986 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1985 Metro Pictures, New York, 1981 SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS La Biennale di Venezia: XLVII Esposizioione Internationale d'Arte, Venice, Italy, 1997 'Views From Abroad: European Perspectives on American Art 3', Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1997 'Allegories of Modernism: Contemporary Drawing', The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1992 'A Forest of Signs: Art in the Crisis of Representation', The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA, 1989 'Documenta 8', Kassel, Germany, 1987 L?epoque, La Mode, La Morale, La Passion, 1977 - 1987', Mus'e National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1987 "New York '85" (with Jasper Johns, Elsworth Kelly...

Category

1980s Post-Modern Robert Longo Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo  Bronze Sculpture
Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo  Bronze Sculpture

Rare "Dickhead" Robert Longo Bronze Sculpture

By Robert Longo

Located in Surfside, FL

Very rare cast. (edition of 1 or 2) This work was featured in an article "The Appropriation of Marginal Art in the 1980s Author: Donald Kuspit Source: American Art, Vol. 5, No. 1/2 (...

Category

1980s Post-Modern Robert Longo Figurative Sculptures

Materials

Granite, Bronze

Robert Longo figurative sculptures for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Robert Longo figurative sculptures available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Robert Longo in bronze, granite, metal and more. Not every interior allows for large Robert Longo figurative sculptures, so small editions measuring 13 inches across are available.

Questions About Robert Longo Figurative Sculptures

  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Robert Longo uses cold roll paper. The artist himself explained in an interview that the paper he prefers is not handmade, instead it is machine-made, archival paper. Longo is best known for his paintings that capture realistic moments and express the inner strength of his subjects. Shop a selection of Longo pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    With roots in sculpture, contemporary artist Robert Longo is best known for his charcoal and graphite drawings, which showcased men and women in mid-movement. You can shop a selection of Robert Longo pieces from some of the world’s top dealers on 1stDibs.