Robert Longo “Art and activism in times of emergency” (New-York)(Nov 2017)

In conjunction with the special exhibition Proof: Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Longo. Robert Longo and Hal Foster explored how art historical discourses on the concept of the real have found a renewed urgency today, in a moment embroiled in “fake news,” iconoclasm, and the desire for representational justice. This event took place at the Brooklyn Museum on Thursday, November 16, 2017. (Talk: https://youtu.be/-ZslEUUWJmQ)

Brooklyn Museum: “At particular moments in history, artists use their artwork to reveal social, cultural, and political complexities, responding to the times in which they live. Bringing together the work of three innovative chroniclers, the exhibition offers insight into the energy, empathy, and creativity with which these artists recounted and reimagined their realities.

Together spanning four centuries and three continents, Spanish artist Francisco Goya (1746–1828), Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948), and contemporary American artist Robert Longo (born 1953) each witnessed a turbulent transition from one era to another and the profound repercussions of revolution, war, and civil unrest. Within a broad chronological framework, Proof traces the historical lineage of a visual language and artistic impulse.

These works call to mind images—such as mutiny on a Russian battleship, or American riot police standing guard at a political protest—that are usually represented through journalistic coverage, yet they express the artists’ personal, often emotional, perspectives.

Featuring artwork almost exclusively in black and white, Proof showcases the artists’ technical acuity and bold experimentation in three mediums: etching, film, and charcoal drawing.

With a rare combination of selections, it invites viewers to find new meaning in artworks not normally encountered together.

Robert Longo is an American painter, sculptor, performance artist best known for his complex art works featuring sculptural, photographic, and painterly techniques. His work often allegorizes city life and tensions between the individual and totalitarian social systems.

As the exhibition title suggests, Goya, Eisenstein, and Longo together provide proof not only of significant events or actions, but more crucially of their ongoing resonances through art.”