Robert Longo

polystyle

Well-known member
Curious to see if anyone here knows his art work(s)
The most well known being the "Men In The Cities" series of B&W drawings from early 1980's.
That (somewhat) recent Acute Glenn Branca rerelease sports a Longo "Men" drawing on cover,
and i keep seeing some rips of that style on record covers , poster art , etc.
Know it ? don't like it ? don't know it ?
 

Woebot

Well-known member
ashamed to admit i mainly know him for sleeves for rhys chatham and branca, though i know he's supposed to have a rep as a moden artist proper.
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Aaah , a reply !

Yea M , it's been some years since his percieved prime so I'm not so surprised at lack of current recognition.
He also did a cover for The Replacements back then (the Tim album) ,
did some music videos along the way through the 1980's -
Golden Palamino's , New Order (Bizarre Love Triangle) , Megadeth (Peace Sells ),
Living Color , REM (This One Goes Out To The One I Love) ,
often with the innovative editing of his then girlfriend Gretchen Bender.
GB pretty much pioneered the super fast editing style that became MTV sub norm (if you've ever seen the end of the Megadeth video , even parts of the New Order vid you know what I mean) .
She was hired to edit the original opening for "America's Most Wanted".
Bk in that day it was a quite fresh and new style .
Gretchen and her friend Amber Denker had access to CG in the early 1980's , using them to make the original DCC 12" cover for the Beggars Banquet 'At The Marble Bar 12".
Longo came to be called by critics one of the big 3 artists here for a time there in the mid '80's
(Longo, Schnabel , David Salle), prolly to his detriment because once the critics build you - eventually they may just rip you down.
I was already working with Gretchen and also William Gibson , had become Robert's music director
when eventually Longo asked me one day 'What is the best Gibson story to make a movie of ?'
And so the almost decade long story of the making of "Johnny Mnemonic" began ...
 
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