Robert Longo is a standard-bearer of the 1980s generation of so-called ‘appropriation’ art. In simple terms ‘appropriation’ here refers to the recognition on the part of practicing artists that art could be sensuous and viable without having to follow modernist invention of forms. Rather, the artists freely mixed and matched elements from preceding styles, infusing a bold energy on abstract forms, patterns and figural imagery. Mass-media factored as an important reference point for a number of these artists, notable among them Longo, who has demonstrated a particular interest in cinematic scale and gesture. The Men in Cities series - a group of forty-four monumental images rendered in graphite, charcoal, ink and silkscreen on paper (by an army of assistants), produced over the five-year period of 1977-1982 - is one of his best known signature pieces and a prime example of his fascination with cinema.

The subjects of this series are men and women, starkly dressed in black-and-white business attire, and captured in extreme and exaggerated poses. They are produced on a titanic scale and read much like cinematic stills. Most of the works show isolated figures, many faceless, struggling with or reacting to some unseen, unknown force. Their movements are convulsive, like images in violent movies of gunned-down victims, meeting death in a sequence of still frames. It is an undisguised and unflinching image of the destructive force and oppression of contemporary society, defeating not the poor and downtrodden, but attacking and destroying its own foot soldiers, the men and women who are the moving forces of that world. They are the 20th century kin of the “cohorts of the damned” of Medieval and Renaissance Last Judgments, and of such modern counterparts of the “damned” as RodinÕs “Shades” (Gates of Hell, 1881-1917, Rodin Museum, Philadelphia).

Seavest Collection's Untitled (#33) (1982) is emblematic of the power and impact of the series and is one of the most successful realizations of Longo’s apocalyptic vision. The figure is theatrically presented. His stylized movements and posture are guided or manipulated by an unseen, external force. He appears to be caught in an updraft, a phenomenon particular to the gullies and canyons produced by dense outcroppings of late 20th century, city office towers. His necktie, the “membership badge” of the 20th century depersonalized, corporate world threatens to become a noose around his neck. Is this a hanging or a dance? Another question that comes to mind is whether or not the figure could have been drawn from a real pose? Answers are irrelevant as the intended ambiguity of the actions of this titan begin to be understood as the primary message of the image. In LongoÕs vision, the enemy lurks within and without - within our cities, our society, and most poignantly of all within us. This bleak vision so powerfully and dramatically rendered is emblematic of the intent of Longo’s artistic vision - to force examination, introspection, recognition, and reaction.

Longo is a multitalented artist who works equally successfully in a variety of media. He is equally well known as a sculptor and film director as he is as a draftsman/painter, and like the best of the contemporary film directors, his aim is to seduce, elucidate, transform, and instruct. (In the context of this discussion it is worth noting that Longo directed the portentous, popular science fiction film, Johnny Mnemonic, 1995.)

Whether in film or in the realm of the fine arts, Longo typically directs others to execute his ideas. Longo’s imagery, slant, and implementation of monumental, monochromatic images are outgrowths of his exposure to the work of Joseph Piccillo, with whom he studied. Piccillo is represented in the Seavest Collection by F-8 (Ballerina) (1987).

©by Virginia Anne Bonito, revised "Get Real" Longo essay, May 1, 2000.

For a more detailed printed view of the collection order the book:
	Get Real: Contemporary American Realism from the Seavest Collection Virginia Anne Bonito. Foreword by Michael Philip Mezzatesta, pp. 138, 68 colorplates, 2 b/w photographs Exhibition at DUMA April 4-July 6, 1997. Hard cover $40.00 Soft cover $25.00 To order contact: Duke University Museum of Art Click on Publications