Robert Longo's International Exhibits

Robert Longo’s huge and spectacular charcoal drawings of Engines of State, based on the White House, the Capital and Supreme Court buildings,were on exhibit at the National Gallery this summer. Longo now has four solo shows, in Europe, the UK and the U.S., that showcase his enormous talent.

 

Two shows in London, at the Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery through November 20, 2024 and at the Pace gallery through November 9, 2024. Titled Searchers, each show includes 25-foot-long works, which incorporate drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and photography. 

 

 

The exhibit at the Albertina Museum in Vienna showcases Longo’s large, dramatic drawings on paper and will be on view until January 26, 2025.

 

The Acceleration of History, a retrospective of the work that Longo has done in the past ten years, will be on exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum from October 25, 2024 through February 23, 2025.

 

The works in London showcase Longo’s used of many media, and include film and sculpture. One of Longo’s mentors was sculptor Ricard Serra, whose work is also avaiable at VFA.

 

Much of Longo’s work is social commentary and seeing the world in an abstract context. “Artists have to respond to the world we live in.” Longo said in an interview in The Brooklyn Rail.  “Picasso said that art is like a weapon. It’s not meant to hang over the couch. It’s a weapon to use. I think what I make is beautiful. I make highly aggressive images out of this incredibly fragile charcoal dust.”

 

Of his iconic Men in the Cities series, available at VFA, Longo said, “They all had these rhythms. I thought of “Men in the Cities” like guitar chords of a punk rock song.” 

 

The work of Robert Longo has become more relevant than ever and his images speak to a new generation of art lovers. “Art is a form of understanding,” he said, “like the way science is, and math is, and sociology is, but maybe it is a form of understanding that can hold all of this. Maybe it is one of the better ways to understand the world.”

 

Robert Longo lives and works in New York and East Hampton. “I’m making my best work ever.” Longo said in an interview with The Guardian. “Every morning I leap out of bed to go to the studio. I’m obsessed.”

 

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Also at the Albertina is a 70th Birthday Retrospective of the works of Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. 

 

 

Wurm is one of the most successful (and fun) contemporary artists in the world. He is best known for his quirky sculptures and drawings that reflect the irony and absurdity of our modern world. A recent example is the 11-foot luxury handbag sculpture, titled Desire, that was commissioned by the French fashion house Lanvin.

 

The retrospective of Erwin Wurm’s work at the Abertina will be on exhibit through March 9, 2025.

 

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October 16, 2024