Untitled
Artist: Robert Longo (American, born 1953)
Date: 1980
Dimensions:
(All 3) H: 65 in. (165.1 cm); W: 120 in. (304.8 cm); Depth: 7 in. (17.8 cm);
(Panel) H: 65 in. (165.1 cm); W: 37 1/4 in. (94.6 cm); Depth: 7 in. (17.8 cm)
Medium: Lacquer on cast aluminum bonding, in 3 parts
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Museum Purchase, by exchange
Object number: 2005.40A-C
Label Text:My major influences when I was growing up were television, definitely television (it was my babysitter), and sports, girls, cars, and toys. War toys in particular. High impact stuff—like sports and warfare.
The twisting, anguished (or ecstatic?) figures of this wall sculpture seem helpless to resist the invisible forces that assault them. By freezing singular, non-consecutive movements, Robert Longo references the fast-cut editing of contemporary cinema and television, in which viewers might be given small snippets of action that together form an apparent—but not necessarily linear—narrative.
The work relates to Longo’s series of drawings and sculptures titled “Men in the Cities” (1979–1983)—images of isolated young men (and sometimes women) in business suits that Longo called “doomed souls” and “fallen angels.” The “Men in the Cities” images have become so iconic that they have influenced everything from the original iPod ads of loose-limbed, silhouetted figures to the opening sequence of Mad Men.
The twisting, anguished (or ecstatic?) figures of this wall sculpture seem helpless to resist the invisible forces that assault them. By freezing singular, non-consecutive movements, Robert Longo references the fast-cut editing of contemporary cinema and television, in which viewers might be given small snippets of action that together form an apparent—but not necessarily linear—narrative.
The work relates to Longo’s series of drawings and sculptures titled “Men in the Cities” (1979–1983)—images of isolated young men (and sometimes women) in business suits that Longo called “doomed souls” and “fallen angels.” The “Men in the Cities” images have become so iconic that they have influenced everything from the original iPod ads of loose-limbed, silhouetted figures to the opening sequence of Mad Men.
On view
In Collection(s)