Robert Longo: Charcoal
Three essays explain how Longo's recurring themes - such as monster waves, the "sickness of reason" in nuclear explosions, and sharks as "perfect Gods" - typically capture moments of climax, tap into the collective unconscious and ask questions about how power achieves its effects. The overbearing scale of many of the drawings is consonant with those concerns. (Paul Carey-KentThe Art Newspaper2012-09-01)Art doesn't get more basic than charcoal drawings, unless it's those scratched in the dirt with a stick. In the cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc in France, the charcoal drawings are (perhaps) 32,000 years old. Mr. Longo's hyper-realistic drawings here are a bit more recent, though no less lively. Many of them dwell on nature: skyscraper waves out of a surfer's dream, and razor-mouthed sharks out of a surfer's nightmare; white tigers and vast nebulas; and mushroom clouds as if drafted by Georgia O'Keeffe. (Dana JenningsThe New York Times2012-06-29)