Robert Longo: The New Beyond

In “The New Beyond“, American artist Robert Longo presents his most recent series of monumental charcoal drawings paying homage to the European pioneers of post-war art. Following his 2014 series of drawings based on American Abstract Expressionism, in this exhibition, Longo explores the work of Karel Appel, Jean Dubuffet, Arshile Gorky, Asger Jorn, Yves Klein, Willem de Kooning, Maria Lassnig, Piero Manzoni, Joan Mitchell, Pierre Soulages, Wols and Zao Wou-Ki. As many of these artists worked in Europe – several of them in Paris – in the years following the Second World War, their experimental and multifarious practices revolutionised art after the trauma of the devastation of war. By revisiting their work in a contemporary context, Longo offers this exhibition as a “historical construction”, highlighting the continued influence of these artists, finding a present-day resonance in their ability to transcend through their work the fraught circumstances of a radically changing world.

The process of creating a charcoal drawing is almost entirely opposite to the process of creating a traditional painting. Starting with a white page, Longo gradually and meticulously darkens certain areas to create shadow, ending with the points of deepest black, whereas, in a traditional painting, highlights are applied at the end, over the darker tones. Longo’s approach is measured, even ‘forensic’. But as he studies every brushstroke, carefully recreating their material modulations and nuances of colour out of dry, black charcoal, he celebrates the materiality of paint that is, according to Font-Réaulx, ‘the sensitive and intimate meaning of these works.’ Longo’s drawings are saturated with the time of their making.