Robert Longo
dal 18/2/2004 al 27/3/2004
Segnalato da
18/2/2004
Robert Longo
Metro Pictures, New York
Massive, unfurling atomic explosions are the central subject of The Sickness of Reason, Robert Longo's exhibition of very large charcoal drawings. Executed in high contrast, dense blacks, the drawings combine stunning visual presence, unsettling emotional conflict, and terrifying physical power - themes that have engaged Longo throughout his career.
The Sickness of Reason
Massive, unfurling atomic explosions are the central subject of The Sickness
of Reason, Robert Longo's exhibition of very large charcoal drawings.
Executed in high contrast, dense blacks, the drawings combine stunning
visual presence, unsettling emotional conflict, and terrifying physical
power - themes that have engaged Longo throughout his career. Longo's
detailed focus on individual explosions realigns our familiarity with grainy
news photographs of mushroom clouds reduced to grey reminders of the post
war/ cold war issues. The relationship between this body of work and that
of the prior three years is addressed in the exhibition by inclusion of a
drawing inspired by Einstein¹s office that is reminiscent of the Freud
drawings; another of parallel lines of sequential breaking waves that is a
departure from Longo¹s recent crashing close-up¹s of enormous waves; and a
drawing of a night time rocket launch, in a display of harnessed power.
Robert Longo's studio is in Lower Manhattan; he lives in Brooklyn. His work
is included in this year's Whitney Biennial. An exhibition of his Freud
Drawings (at Metro Pictures in 2001) traveled to the Krefelder Kunstmuseen,
in Germany and the Albertina in Vienna accompanied by a catalogue. Longo
has had retrospective exhibitions at the Hamburger Kunstverein and
Deichtorhallen in Germany, the Menil Collection in Houston, the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, the Hartford Athenaeum, the Isetan Museum of Art in
Tokyo and included in group shows such as Documenta, the Whitney Biennial,
Venice Biennial, and the Carnegie International. The work has been
represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Art
Institute of Chicago, Guggenheim Museum, High Museum in Atlanta, Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, Menil Collection in Houston, Musee d¹art Contemporain
in Montreal, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven,
Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Albertina in Vienna. Monticelli
Press is preparing two books: one on Longo's Magellan project, and the other
documenting his work from the 1990's to the present.
Reception Friday, 19 February, 6 Â 8 PM
Upcoming exhibition schedule:
John Miller, 3 April  1 May
Cindy Sherman, 8 May
For additional information, contact Travis Choat at Metro Pictures.
Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street
New York