“Art is an attempt to try and understand our own contemporary situation through making images that are completely personal, while also addressing our social context.” -Robert Longo
The Brooklyn born artist, Robert Longo (b. 1953), a key figure in the Pictures Generation movement in New York in the late seventies and early eighties, is known for the powerful images he produces which are often engaged with political, environmental and social issues. Since the beginning of Longo’s artistic career he has successfully sparked the collective imagination with imagery that speaks to the specific historical moment in which it was created. Although a summary of Robert Longo’s richly complex and expansive body of work that he has created throughout his lifetime goes far beyond five basic facts, here are the key elements of this significantly influential artist’s professional timeline that we hope will shed light on theoretical gears at work in his aesthetic project.