By accident, I found his work. Neat, award winning art book from 2012 priced with extortionist level in Finland (Akateeminen..), but I kept wondering should I take it or not. And after few visits in bookstore over several months, decided that I just forget about it. No use spending like 90 euro for this book. Eventually found one for 34 euro abroad while visiting some bookstore...
So who / what is the Robert Longo? Well, the little I know & read, is that one day in 1999 he was at his studio, pissed off for not having his graphite pens, but instead found pile of charcoal sticks and powder, and decided to give it a try. And now, more than decade later, there is huge amount of MASSIVE charcoal works produced.
His idea and method is pretty simple:
Iconic images done in almost photo-realistic manner in huge size, with charcoal, with deep large black areas and extremely nice grey toned fades.
Iconic - in some ways is always reminding of the nature of mankind. Or... just is this american pop art afterall ? So what is "iconic" in this case: Big tits. Cars. American football players. Huge foaming waves ready for surfers. Sharks. Lions. Airplanes. planets. nuclear explosions. etc. Usually something very simple, yet effective. Things what anyone who knows the western culture, immediately has some sort of connection. But beyond the (too?) blunt choices, there is simply magnificent scale of his craft. It's hard to really explain, even by samples online. Book is absolutely better. But I'm sure anyone who have seen exhibition, will tell book must be worthless comparing to real deal?
I admire also the choice of tools. We're basically talking about something, that IF it's not stone sculpture, this is just about as eternal as man can make. Some (cave) drawings from 30000 years ago are made with coal.
(http://www.robertlongo.com/static/dyn-images/22/22074.jpeg)
(http://www.robertlongo.com/static/dyn-images/19/19604.jpeg)
(http://www.robertlongo.com/static/dyn-images/19/19610.jpeg)
more: http://www.robertlongo.com/
Ah, I know this guy from when I studied art, I like his work and remember reading about it in one of the early books on the Saatchi collection. I also have a book by Klaus Honnef where Longo combines sculpture and drawings, he also does aluminium wall casts, both are impressive. There are a few big drawing artists I know of inspired by him Margarita Gluzenberg (who I think is pencil) and a guy called Reece Jones who uses Charcol.
http://www.margaritagluzberg.com/
http://www.allvisualarts.org/artists/reece-jones.aspx
Amazing !
Somehow it got me thinking of Roj Friberg (always a good thing). He have done covers for Bauta Records in Sweden and use a lot of pencil in his very detailed drawings.
(http://www.omkonst.com/Bilder12/Roj-Friberg3.jpg)
wow, that shark would be PERFECT for my living room. great.
this series http://www.robertlongo.com/work/gallery/1118 (http://www.robertlongo.com/work/gallery/1118) reminded me of American Psycho ...
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on April 11, 2013, 08:06:48 PMNo use spending like 90 euro for this book. Eventually found one for 34 euro abroad while visiting some bookstore...
Wow! Is it usual for distributors/retailers to jack up the prices like that in Finland? Or is it mainly just for items like art books?
Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on June 06, 2013, 04:28:06 AM
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on April 11, 2013, 08:06:48 PMNo use spending like 90 euro for this book. Eventually found one for 34 euro abroad while visiting some bookstore...
Wow! Is it usual for distributors/retailers to jack up the prices like that in Finland? Or is it mainly just for items like art books?
I have experienced the same with import DVDs. I never buy them from my local video stores. One DVD can easily be something like 50€ when you get the exact same version from Amazon for 10€ shipped. Regarding books, I have never experienced anything like that. But that can be because I'm not looking for the "right ones". Obviously the retailers do that when they see the potential, some old medical books can be quite pricey, but the ones I have seen have been in rare bookshops so go figure, heh.
Taxes are one reason, small demand on special goods is another. Higher prices in general probably third. So yes, just about everything in Finland costs more, but any import books of special nature will cost more than cover price. Sometimes significantly more. There is no competition in sales of artbooks. I guess the last photobook shop (/gallery) in Helsinki closed down. Reason could be that why pay double price for book in times when it can be delivered to your door in couple of days...