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Description
(Text)
Mit der Serie "Men in the Cities" wurde Robert Longo (geb.1953 in Brooklyn, N.Y.) in den 80er Jahren berühmt: überlebensgroße Zeichnungen von korrekt gekleideten Geschäftsmännern und später auch Frauen, die sich unter Einwirkung einer unsichtbaren, offenbar gewalttätigen Macht in unnatürlichen Verrenkungen winden - eine Art Totentanz des modernen Menschen. Zwischen 1977 und1983 entstanden, waren die "Menschen in Großstädten" auch ein früher Versuch Longos, die vielen Facetten seiner künstlerischen Praxis - Skulptur, Zeichnung, Performance, Photographie und Film - zu kondensieren bzw. zu mischen.Anfangs benutzte er noch Bilder aus Magazinen, Zeitungenoder auch Film Stills als Vorlagen; es war ein Still aus dem Fassbinder-Film Der amerikanische Soldat, das Longo auf die Idee zu der Serie brachte. Dann begann er, Freundewie Cindy Sherman, Larry Gagosian, Brooke Alexander oder Glenn Branca als Modelle einzusetzen. Auf dem Dach seines Loft ließ er sie geworfenen oder schwingenden Gegenständen ausweichen und photographierte, wie siesich wanden, krümmten, fielen. Unser Band versammelt das photographische Ausgangsmaterial der Serie "Men in the Cities", eine Auswahl von90 Photographien, aufgenommen vom Künstler selbst. David Byrne, ehemals Songwriter und Gitarrist der Popgruppe "Talking Heads", schrieb den einleitenden Essay.
(Short description)
For his famous Men in the Cities series - drawings of sharply dressed businesspeople writhing in contortion, a sort of death dance of the modern man -, Longo used his friends as models. He'd bring them up on the roof of his loft, rope them, yank them, throw rubber balls at them to make them jerk, fling, and fall, and take their pictures. They recall both stills from violent movie scenes and sculptures of man in agony from the history of art.
(Text)
The Men in the Cities series made Robert Longo famous in the 1980s: larger-than-life drawings of sharply dressed businesspeople writhing in contortion under the impact of an invisible, obviously violent power, a sort of death dance of the modern man. Powerful icons that, as Longo said, "exist somewhere between movies and monuments". Men in the Cities, created between 1977 and 1983, is also an early attempt in merging the diverse fields of Longo's artistic practice: sculpture, drawing, photography, and film.
Longo first appropriated images from magazines, newspapers, and movie stills. Later he began to use his friends as models, among them Cindy Sherman, Gretchen Bender, Brooke Alexander, Larry Gagosian, and Glenn Branca, posing and photographing them himself. He would bring them up on the roof of his New York City loft, rig up ropes to them, throw rubber balls, rocks, and other objects at them to make them jerk, fling or fall--and take their picture.
This book presents the photographic source material to Men in Cities, featuring 94 photographs taken by Robert Longo.
Cindy Sherman, herself an internationally renowned artist and close friend of Longo's since their studies at the State University College, Buffalo, wrote a personal foreword. The images are accompanied by an interview with Robert Longo, conducted in 1987 by the author and screenwriter Richard Price.
