Oral history interview with Robert Longo
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 4 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hr., 54 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Longo, Robert
label: Interviewer
content: Richards, Judith Olch
label: Names
content: Hallwalls (Museum)
label: Names
content: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
label: Names
content: Metro Pictures (Gallery)
label: Names
content: Nassau Community College -- Students
label: Names
content: State University of New York at Buffalo -- Students
label: Names
content: University of North Texas -- Students
label: Names
content: Acconci, Vito, 1940-
label: Names
content: Alexander, Brooke
label: Names
content: Bender, Gretchen, 1951-2004
label: Names
content: Brauntuch, Troy, 1954-
label: Names
content: Clough, Charles, 1951-
label: Names
content: Fink, Leonara
label: Names
content: Fischer, Konrad
label: Names
content: Gibson, William
label: Names
content: Goldstein, Jack, 1945-2003
label: Names
content: Heiss, Alanna
label: Names
content: Irwin, Robert, 1928-
label: Names
content: Krims, Leslie
label: Names
content: König, Kasper
label: Names
content: LeWitt, Sol, 1928-2007
label: Names
content: Malkin, Phil
label: Names
content: Mazzoli, Emilio
label: Names
content: McMann, Paul
label: Names
content: Mullican, Matt, 1951-
label: Names
content: Ranieri, Dominic
label: Names
content: Reeves, Keanu
label: Names
content: Reiring, Janelle
label: Names
content: Salle, David, 1952-
label: Names
content: Shea, Diane
label: Names
content: Sherman, Cindy
label: Names
content: Sukowa, Barbara, 1950-
label: Names
content: Winer, Helene, 1946-
label: Names
content: Zwack, Michael, 1949-
place: label: Place
content: France -- Paris -- Description and Travel
label: Place
content: Italy -- description and travel
topic: label: Topic
content: Dyslexia
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Longo, Robert
label: Interviewer
content: Richards, Judith Olch
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Robert Longo (1953- ) is a painter and sculptor in New York, New York. Judith Olch Richards (1947- ) is former executive director of iCI in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 4 Items (sound discs (4 hr., 54 min.) Sound recording, digital)
label: Extent
content: 91 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2009 January 30-31
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.longo09
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Robert Longo conducted 2009 January 30-31, by Judith Olch Richards, for the Archives of American Art, at Longo's studio, in New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Longo speaks of his Italian heritage, his family and growing up in Long Island, New York; the role magazines, television, and movies played in artistic inspiration; his dyslexia; his interest in sports and music in high school; moving to Denton, Texas to attend the University of North Texas before being expelled; moving back to New York and enrolling in Nassau Community College; traveling to Italy to study art history, where he discovered his desire to become an artist; attending Buffalo State University where he met Charlie Clough, Michael Zwack, and Cindy Sherman, with whom he created Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center; Robert Irwin, Sol LeWitt and Vito Acconci's involvement with Hallwalls; moving to New York City with Cindy Sherman to begin their careers as artists; working at The Kitchen and his performance pieces of the period; the child-like, punk, and corporate influences and the process of creating his "archetypical" Men in the Cities series; his relationship with Gretchen Bender; the formations of Metro Pictures gallery by Helene Winer and Janelle Reiring; the Combines, sculptures, music videos, and short films created in the 1980's and their mixed reception and mixed success in the difficult art market; his works cast in aluminum and metal; his first retrospective held at the LA County Museum of Art in 1989 and feeling lost in his own work; creating "bad art" in the process of attempting sobriety; black flag imagery and his success in Europe, which served as inspiration to move to Paris for several years; meeting his wife, Barbara Sukowa, a German actress; how having children changed his perspective and how they act as antennae to the world; his directorial role of the 1992 film, "Johnny Mnemonic"; and the slow progression, and continuity, of imagery in different bodies of work from the mid-1990's through the present, including the Magellan series (drawings of 366 different images), Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud's offices, and series of waves, bombs, roses, planets, sleeping babies, and sharks. Longo also recalls Leonora Fink, Phil Malkin, Rick Zucker, Les Krims, Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Paul McMann, David Salle, Matt Mullican, Diane Shea, Alanna Heiss, Kasper Konig, Konrad Fischer, Brooke Alexander, Dominic Ranieri, William Gibson, Keanu Reeves, Emilio Mazzoli and others.