Robert Longo: Charcoal

The enormous, photorealistic charcoal drawings by American artist Robert Longo (*1953 in Brooklyn, New York) show the beauty and horror of the present day and age. His large-format works contrast the innocence of sleeping toddlers, the tranquil grandiosity of Earth and the planets, roses in bloom, and Gothic cathedrals with threatening images of atom bomb explosions, fighter pilots, monster waves, sharks, and the muzzles of revolvers. Inexorably and seismographically precise, the winner of the 2005 Goslar Kaiserring and 2010 inductee into the French Order of Arts and Letters records the state of our world. Longo’s powerful motifs give form and expression to the feelings of fear and longing felt by people in the twenty-first century, and affect the viewer with the full force of the medium.This large-format, elaborately designed book, printed on natural paper using a tritone process, bound in half cloth and distributed in four different cover designs, has been created in close collaboration with the artist and affords a comprehensive overview of his charcoal drawings from the past decade. Exhibition schedule: Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm, November 28, 2010–September 25, 2011