Robert Longo – Hyperrealistic Moments and Powerful Narratives.
Who is Robert Longo?
Robert Longo, born in 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American artist known for his monumental black-and-white charcoal drawings. He grew up on Long Island and began his career studying art history before training as a sculptor at State University College in Buffalo.
There, he developed a fascination for film and photography and became a central figure in New York’s 1970s "Pictures Generation"—a group of artists, including Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince, who critiqued consumer society and the growing influence of mass media.
Longo rose to fame in 1981 with his series *Men in the Cities*, and since then, he has worked with powerful motifs that explore power structures, violence, and the complex dynamics of society.
Hyperrealistic Moments and Powerful Narratives
The exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art offers the first comprehensive insight into the powerful and captivating works of the American artist Robert Longo in Scandinavia. With a collection of his most iconic large-format charcoal drawings, the exhibition invites visitors to experience how Longo creates intense, hyperrealistic black-and-white scenes that draw on both familiar and defining moments from history, politics, and media.
Through a careful, slow process, Longo transforms his chosen motifs, enlarging them and adding depth with dramatic light and shadow effects—the classical chiaroscuro technique—giving the works an almost cinematic, hypnotic quality.
What You Can Experience
Among the featured works is the famous series "The Freud Cycle", a set of detailed drawings based on photographs of Sigmund Freud’s office and apartment in Vienna, taken shortly after the Nazis took power in 1938. This series holds both historical weight and contemporary relevance, as Longo points to the darker aspects of the time and symbols of the complex structures of power and history.
The exhibition also includes a series of recent works, such as a drawing based on bullet holes from the 2015 terrorist attack on the Krudttønden Cultural Centre in Copenhagen, creating a poignant link between global conflicts and local wounds.
The Louisiana exhibition thus becomes not only an aesthetic experience but also a challenge for the viewer to take time, reflect, and engage with the art and the world around them.
Practical Information
- The exhibition is open from April 10, 2025, to August 31, 2025
- Free parking with charging options available
- Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is a 10-15 minute walk from Humlebæk Station
- Dining is available at the café
- For more information on the Robert Longo exhibition, visit the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art website