Robert Longo

(American, born 1953)

Robert Longo is an American artist best known for his photorealistic drawings of jumping figures, sharks, tigers, and guns. Drawn with great detail in charcoal, graphite, and ink, his monochrome series Men in the City renders businessmen and women in a state of suspended animation, and brought the artist critical acclaim in the early 1980s. Born on January 7, 1953 in Brooklyn, NY, Longo studied sculpture with Cindy Sherman at the State University College in Buffalo, NY, where he received his BFA in 1975. “I always think that drawing is a sculptural process,” Longo has explained. “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 has gone on to have his work shown at the 1983 and 2004 Whitney Biennials in New York and the 47th Venice Biennale. Longo currently lives and works in New York, NY. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Albertina in Vienna, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, among others.