Robert Longo - beginning of the world
Galerie Hans Mayer, March 7 till April 15, 2007
From March 7 till April 15, American artist Robert Longo will be showing his latest cycle of works at Galerie Hans Mayer. A world class premiere: these works will be shown for the first time.
In recent years Longo has countered the dream world of the USA with a number of cycles depicting nightmarish visual realities captured solely in the medium of charcoal. After a series on the universal power of the media in the1980’s, followed in the 1990’s by his “Magellan” series. Then Longo continued with cycles based on Sigmund Freud’s apartment in Vienna, tsunami ocean waves, atomic bomb blasts, planets and starfields. Ever since, the American artist, born in 1953, is regarded as a historical painter of Modernism.
Longo’s most recent series, “beginning of the world”, as the exhibition is also entitled, shows the faces and heads of children asleep - zoomed to larger than life and rendered like a vision in the velvet sensuous surface in charcoal. Like living Brancusi Muses (which is where the title of the exhibition comes from) they emerge from the pitch-black backdrop with their eyes closed. Seemingly asleep, their faces convey a peaceful contentment and in their stillness create a mystical atmosphere. Longo considers that once people reach a certain age, their thoughts turn more to the future, to what they can do to make the future a better place. Initially he intended calling this series “fragile future”, but dismissed the title as being too melodramatic and sentimental. He thinks that these children will grow up in a world that has already become a very difficult place to live in. Only two of the drawings are of children he knows, his son Joseph and his best friend, Jon Kessler’s daughter, Juliette. They were born a day apart, and were 12 years old at the time. The remaining children come from images found on the internet and Longo does not know any of them. He has given them new names and severely altered their appearance – even changed their sex. These are not portraits of children, they are the children.
After spectacular visions of the Last Days, these new works are quiet but haunting symbols of a world that humankind questions in its irrationality. As an obvious consequence of Longo’s threatening yet also beautiful planet series, these sleeping children form a cosmic setting floating in space. Their silence confronts the beholder with the sleep of reason, and no one can tell whether this speaks of a new beginning for humankind, or its end. Through dormant tranquillity Robert Longo cautions us in a peaceful way.
As a participant in the Biennale and twice the Documenta, as well as the bearer of the Kaisserring 2005, Longo numbers among the foremost artists of the United States. After being closed for over 10 years for refurbishment, the Albertina in Vienna celebrated the reopening of its drawing collection, one of the largest worldwide, by exhibiting Longo’s Freud series. Shortly beforehand the works had been on show at Galerie Hans Mayer.
As a wanderer between the media, this multi-talent constantly explores virgin territory:
In 1996 Longo directed the cyberspace film „Johnny Mnemonic“ starring Keanu Reeves, which advanced to cult status. And has now moved on to new successes as co-founder along with Jon Kessler and his wife, Barbara Sukowa, playing guitar for the New York band “X-Patsys”.
Robert Longo lives with his wife, the German actress and musician Barbara Sukowa and their 3 sons in Brooklyn, New York.
