Pilots, sharks, nuclear explosions and much, much more. Black and white illustrations by Robert Longo

Robert Longo was born in 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up on Long Island. As a child on him big influence influenced by popular culture—film, television, magazines, and comics—which largely shaped his artistic style.

In the late 1970s, Longo performed experimental punk music in New York City rock clubs for Robert Longo's Menthol Wars. He is a co-founder of the avant-garde group X-Patsys (with his wife Barbara Zukova, Jon Kessler, Knox Chandler, Sean Conley, Jonathan Kane and Anthony Coleman).

In the 1980s, Longo directed several music videos, including the song The One I Love by R.E.M. , Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order and Peace Sells by Megadeth.

In 1992, the artist acted as the director of one of the episodes of the series "Tales from the Crypt" called "This will kill you" (This'll Kill Ya). The most famous of director's work Longo - 1995 film

Robert Longo is sometimes called the creator of death. This New York artist covers themes in his works that other masters try to avoid.

Coal, nuclear explosion and ... sharks

wreckage charcoal pencil and graphite Longo creates masterpieces that make you horrified - three-dimensional images of terrible tornadoes, hurricanes, nuclear explosions. But not these works of the artist are recognized as the most frightening and realistic.

Robert Longo draws sharks in charcoal.

creepy monsters with open mouths, powerful curves of shark bodies emerging from the blackness, foreshadowing the death of the jaw c - all this fascinates and frightens.

Similar frightening paintings by the master today are in the most famous museum collections and private collections. For his works, Longo even received the legendary Goslar Kaiser Ring award - an alternative "Oscar" in contemporary art.

Robert Longo - artist of death

Robert Longo was born in Brooklyn in 1953. WITH early childhood the future "artist of death" was interested in art.

After Longo entered art academy in Texas, but left it, and entered the Buffalo College of Art, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. The portrait painter of sharks began his career with sculpture, but after that he became interested in painting.

The first exhibition of the artist took place in 1980, however great fame did not bring. The next year was marked for the artist by the beginning of a new project and growing popularity.

In addition to his works of the apocalypse in the form of an atomic mushroom, the art master is also known for directing Johnny Mnemonic.

Shark is an artist's best friend

Robert Longo calls sharks his best sitters. It was their images that became a sensation in 2007 at the exhibition "PERFECT GODS" - ideal Gods. Sharks, according to Longo, are great creations.

Fans of creativity very often ask themselves: why does the author create such "deadly" paintings? Why not landscapes, not portraits? The artist answers briefly: "I paint reality."

One of the famous psychiatrists once suggested that Longo has an obsessive-compulsive disorder or a "syndrome of terrible thoughts."

Robert Longo, according to the doctor, as a result of a severe psychological trauma suffered in childhood, suffers from obsessive thoughts and fears of dying from the elements or from the teeth of a huge shark.

The artist strongly rejected these assumptions, but confirmed that in childhood he really witnessed a big car accident when a school bus collided with a passenger car in Brooklyn.

In addition, Robert Longo does not deny that by nature he is a pessimist and "terrible melancholic who loves to flip through comics with pictures or watch BBC News reports about tragic explosions."

It is also known that the artist is terrified a large number water and has an incomprehensible interest in photographs of people tormented after shark attacks. Therefore, the sharks on the canvases of Longo look so realistic.

There is something in common between sharks, hurricanes and nuclear explosions, says the artist. - All these things are unexpected, all are delightfully beautiful and all do not bode well.

And these words are full of truth.

The study is an analysis of the film "Johnny Mnemonic", the only feature film directed by artist Robert Longo.

Alexander URSUL

A number of questions arise when looking at a painting. How could a man who became famous for his charcoal drawings, in particular, the Men in the Cities series, be brought into directing? And also directing such a blockbuster with a stellar cast? Robert Longo , of course, a commercial artist. His graphics are fashionable, they show how style dominates everything today, and most importantly, life and death. Robert Longo is a postmodernist. And so it can work with everything, absolutely everything. But why did he choose science fiction for self-expression? And for the film adaptation - a work in the cyberpunk genre? What came of it? Is this movie a notable phenomenon or a passing one?

To begin with, let's turn to what experience Longo had with video before Mnemonic. In the 1980s, he directed several music videos: the video for the song Bizarre Love Triangle British rock band New Order (see below), Peace Sells video by American thrash metal band Megadeth, hit video American rock band R.E.M. - The One I Love, etc. The longo clip maker actively uses editing tools - double exposure, quick change of frames that can last less than a second, etc. The content of the clips has hints of surrealism - for example, a man in a suit who flies down in free fall, but can't fall, etc. In the video for Megadeth, the director relishes a close-up of the singer's singing—no, screaming—lips—we'll see later close-ups lips and clenched teeth of protagonist Johnny Mnemonic. Clips were regularly shown on TV channels like MTV.

Longo's love for music is not without reason - in his youth he organized the Menthol Wars punk band, which performed in rock clubs in New York in the late 70s. You can listen to one of the songs here:

In 1987, the artist made a short film (34 min.) about a group of New Yorkers - Arena Brains. I couldn't find this job online. But there is a work of the same name by the artist Longo (see appendix), where to the head of a man who is clearly screaming, with bared teeth (repeating in the work of Longo visual image), where the brain is located, an image of fire is added. Brains are burning, burning?

(Stills from Megadeth's Peace Sells video)

(Still from "Johnny Mnemonic")

(Longo's work called Arena Brains)

The next step in Longo's career as a director was the work on the second series fourth season Tales from the Crypt project (Tales from the Crypt, This'll Kill Ya series) of the American channel HBO. "Tales from the Crypt" is a cult series based on comics in certain circles. Each 30-minute episode is a different story in which people make bad deeds and pay for them. For several years, 93 horror series were shot, one of which was entrusted to Robert Longo. The director's assistant was the artist's nephew, Christopher Longo (future sound engineer in Hollywood).

“I died, and this man killed me” - these are one of the first words spoken in this “tale”. The series "This Will Kill You" is dedicated to a certain laboratory in which a new drug is being developed - h24. Two scientists - Sophie and Peck - are under the leadership of the self-confident upstart George. One day, instead of the medicine that George needs, his colleagues seem to accidentally inject him with h24 serum, but the new medicine has not yet been tested on humans. In the series there is sex with the former, love triangle, paranoia, hallucinogenic visions of people covered in bubbles, and murder.

Turning to, it can be noted that Longo often fills the camera on its side to get unusual angles. The same manner will be present in "Johnny Mnemonic". Double exposure is also actively involved. Some plans are designed with the dominance of one color, for example, blue (compare with the use of charcoal in the artist's drawings).

A couple of clips, a short film and one episode - this is Longo's entire experience in creating videos (before "Mnemonics"). Pretty small. But it is already possible to draw conclusions from it. The groups for which the artist made videos, although they work in the "youth" genres and are underground at first, become commercially successful. This "Tale from the Crypt" series, like Longo's music videos, seems to us to be clearly part of popular culture. However, the question remains whether Longo played with style in these works, whether he appropriated it, or whether he simply worked for his own pleasure in a new specialty, earning money.

Now we finally begin to analyze the film "Johnny Mnemonic".

What's on the surface? Blockbuster 1995. Genre is cyberpunk. Budget - 26 million dollars. Star cast - Keanu Reeves (who became famous at that time for the film "Speed"), Dolph Lundgren (action actor), Takeshi Kitano (the same Japanese actor and director), Ice-T (actor and rapper), Barbara Zukova (wife of Robert Longo , starred in Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz), Udo Kier (played many charismatic anti-heroes in Hollywood films) and others. Musical accompaniment from the creator of the soundtrack to the "Terminator" - Brad Fidel. The screenwriter was one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre in literature - William Gibson, the author of the primary source story "Johnny Mnemonic" and good friend Longo.

Initially, Gibson and Longo wanted to make, according to them, an auteur film with a budget of no more than one or two million dollars, but no one gave them that kind of money. The movie has been in development for over five years. Gibson joked that his higher education he got it faster than they made this movie. At some point, according to the authors, they came up with the idea of ​​making a movie with a price of 26 million dollars, and then they were willingly accepted.

(Illustrations below: Longo's sketches and footage from the Johnny Mnemonic movie itself)

What is this “information age tale,” as science fiction writer Gibson calls it, about?
At the beginning of the film, we are brought up to date by means of text running from the bottom up. In the not too distant future, in 2021, powerful transnational corporations will rule the world. In a world completely dependent on electronic technology, humanity is suffering from a new plague - nervous exhaustion syndrome, or black fever. The disease is fatal. Opposed to the dictatorship of corporations are oppositionists who call themselves "Lotex" - hackers, pirates, etc. Corporations, in turn, hire the yakuza (Japanese mafia) to fight the rebels. There is an information war going on.

In a thoroughly cybernated world, information is main commodity. The most valuable data is entrusted to couriers - mnemonics. A mnemonic is a person with a brain implant who is able to carry gigabytes of information in his head. Main character- mnemonic John Smith - does not know where his house is. He once deleted his memories to make room in his cybernetic brain. Now his head serves as a hard drive or even a flash drive for others. John, of course, wants his memory back. His boss suggests last time work as a courier to get enough money to return the memory. Of course, the hero gets into trouble - the amount of information that he took on himself is doubled. If you do not get rid of this data within 24 hours, he will die. And on the heels of the hero are professional killers - the yakuza.

A hero without a past. In a black suit and white shirt and tie. There is a socket in the head - a connector for wires. Standardization plus aesthetics.

They hunt for his head - in the literal sense: they want to cut off his head in order to get to the information. The hero must run towards the goal - he must deliver the information stolen from the Farmak corporation.

With the help of special gloves and a helmet, Johnny becomes one with the technology, penetrates the cybernetwork, the Internet of the future.

Longo seems to be playing with the genre. There are many clichés here: the hero wakes up in bed with another random woman, Mnemonic beats up enemies with a towel pen, villains in cowboy hats laugh like hell, the disappearance of a random savior at the moment when the hero turns away for a couple of seconds, two dunce guards who do not notice the enemies, as well as betrayal love story and a happy ending with a kiss against the backdrop of a burning building.

Therefore, it is better when you look, not to take it seriously, but just enjoy the action.

On the one hand, the film looks like complete trash. Here you have a yakuza with a laser from your finger, and a crazy preacher - a cyborg, with a huge knife in the form of a cross (here I recall the Longo series "Crosses" - Crosses, 1992). But on the other hand, there is a subtle work with style. Longo knows his stuff. Not everything is so simple - there is something to appreciate.
Yakuza with a laser named Shinzhi - why did he end up without a finger? At Japanese mafia there is a rule - if he was guilty before the boss, he must cut off his own finger. So, this killer, pursuing Johnny, turned his disadvantage into dignity. The phalanx of the finger was replaced with an artificial tip, from which the villain takes out a molecular thread that can instantly dismember human body(which, by the way, happens from time to time in the frame).

Shown in the film and the confrontation of the new and the old. The yakuza boss, played by Takeshi Kitano, honors tradition, knows Japanese perfectly, has samurai armor in his office, and even slips human qualities- compassion and conscience. And his successor, the killer Shinzhi, is immoral, dishonest, does not know Japanese language, and betrays his boss for the sake of power.

The preacher who kills for money for new implants, brilliantly embodied by Dolph Lundgren, is appropriation. characteristic image fanatical villain from Japanese animation - anime (see appendix). Not for nothing in one of the initial scenes - the scene of pumping information into Johnny's head and a shootout - the TV is on anime "Shinjuku - Hell City" (Demon City Shinjuku). In general, cartoons, films of the noir genre, etc. are watched here and there in the film. Longo once admitted that he likes to watch cartoons - this is also confirmed by his series about superheroes (Superheroes, 1998).

The theme of modified life, the theme of cyborgs was touched upon by the artist later in the project Yingxiong (Heroes), 2009. By the way, notice that the series is named after the Chinese word for "hero". Asian influence on technical progress recognized as an artist.

Longo creates an insane society in which the sun never shines (the environment is bad - there is a special dome over the city), the society is divided into successful clerks from corporations and beggars dying from diseases from the slums.

The characters use a variety of weapons - from huge futuristic pistols, knives and crossbows to grenade launchers. Weapon - important topic for Robert Longo (remember his 1993 Bodyhammers and Death Star project).

Visually, the film is pleasing to the eye. There are stylish littered plans of smoking tunnels and streets of the cities of the future. You can see creepy and interesting frame with severed fingers and vegetables on a cutting board. Or a mountain of switched on TV screens, personifying the madness of the information society.

A shot of a row of jammed TVs with empty frames in front of them suggests that the TV is now framed by art. The artist Longo makes something from parts mass culture. In an interview, he says that in the late 70s, early 80s art galleries were dead space, but the places where he got inspiration were rock clubs and old movie theaters. This culture was the artist's day food source.

One of the scenes shows night club future - kitsch hairstyles, crazy makeup, strange people, dancing to a rock aria, androgynous bodyguards, a bartender with an iron mechanical hand, etc. The rebels from Lotex also look ridiculous - they wear dreadlocks, have tattoos on their faces, they themselves are dirty and unsociable. And at their base they keep a reasonable dolphin named Jones (by the way, this reasonable dolphin was originally a drug addict, but later the scene with the drug-taking dolphin was cut out). Yes, in places it is unrestrained trash, but it fits into the atmosphere of the film, into the atmosphere of cyberpunk.

You can even try to analyze the film using . Johnny Mnemonic wants to figure out who he is. Recall. Wake up. Ultimately, Johnny is faced with a choice - he learns that in his head is the formula for the cure for black fever, he can save millions of lives.

The key monologue of the hero Keanu Reeves - Johnny: “All my life I tried not to leave my corner, I had no problems. Enough for me! I don't want to be in the garbage, among last year's newspapers and stray dogs. I want good service! I want a washed shirt from a hotel in Tokyo!” Johnny still copes with himself, saves humanity, finds his love - the beautiful cyborg rock warrior Jane, wearing chain mail (Dina Meyer), and finds out who he is. His memory returned. He ceased to be a blind vessel for other people's knowledge.

Johnny's mother turns out to be Anna Kalman, the founder of the Farmak corporation, who died a few years ago, but continues to live in the cybernet. Johnny's mother was played by Robert Longo's wife, Barbara Zukova. Thus, Longo, as a director, with even greater reason is the father of the movie character.

The issue of white collars - people from offices - has already been touched upon by Longo in his own famous project- "People in the cities." Johnny can be seen as one of those "urban".

The film had a very active promotion - they sold accompanying products (t-shirts, etc.), launched a website on the Internet, created computer game based on the film, and Gibson even appeared at various meetings with players and spectators. However, this did not even help recapture the budget. Johnny Mnemonic grossed $19 million in US wide release. Is it true, cult movie Blade Runner by Ridley Scott also failed at the box office.

The film "Johnny Mnemonic", as it seems to us, milestone. Later, the Wachowski brothers will quote him, creating their trilogy "The Matrix" (surname "Smith", black suits, cyberspace, Keanu Reeves in leading role- fighting, running away, using meditation, Zen practices, etc.).

William Gibson compared the experience of making the film to showering in a raincoat and trying to philosophize in Morse code. Longo says in an interview that it was a rewarding experience, but he often didn't know how to set up those "damn cameras" and what he wanted from actors, he had to show on himself in front of everyone. film set in 50 people.

The funny thing is that most people from the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet know about Longo only from this film. Here, for example, is one of the typical comments about Mnemonics: The film was shot by Robert Longo, who, apart from this, didn’t really shoot anything else, but his name cannot be forgotten due to this picture.».

Longo, as a postmodernist, refuses to distinguish between . It brings the previously underground cyberpunk genre into the mainstream. Johnny Mnemonic is a beautiful and atmospheric example of cyberpunk. This is a well-made mainstream movie. But not as stupid as it seems at first glance.

Application:

Images of priests-murderers.

1. Preacher Carl, the cyborg from Johnny Mnemonic.

1. Alexander Anderson, the character was created by the mangaka (author Japanese comics) Koto Hirano. Anderson is an operative of the thirteenth department of the Vatican - the organization "Iscariot" in the universe of the manga and anime "Hellsing". negative character.

1. Nicholas D. Wolfwood, aka Nicholas the Punisher, is a character created by mangaka Yasuhiro Naito, author of the Trigun manga. A priest who wields a large cruciform weapon. positive character.

Pilots, sharks, sexy girls, dancers, the ocean, impressive explosions - this is what New York artist Robert Longo depicts. His illustrations are extremely deep, mystical, powerful and magnetic. Perhaps this effect is due to black and white pictures, which the author carefully writes out using charcoal.

Robert Longo was born in 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. Talking about himself, the artist never forgets to mention that he loves cinema, comics, magazines and has a weakness for television, which have a considerable influence on his work. Robert Longo draws most of the themes for his paintings from what he has seen and read before. The author has always loved to draw, and although he received a bachelor's degree in sculpture, this does not prevent him from doing what he loves, but on the contrary. Some of the artist's drawings are very reminiscent of sculptures, he likes those outlines that come out from under the hand. There is some power in this.

The main exhibitions of paintings by Robert Longo are held at the Museum of Art in Los Angeles, as well as at the Museum contemporary art in Chicago.

Robert Longo Untitled (Guernica Redacted, Picasso’s Guernica, 1937), 2014 Charcoal on mounted paper 4 panels, 283.2x620.4 cm, overall Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London . Paris. Salzburg

Your project in Russia is closely related to archival work. What draws you to archives?

Everything is simple here. I like the opportunity to immerse myself in the material, to learn more about it than others. Museum Archive modern history was magnificent: these long corridors with hundreds of boxes - as if he was in a cemetery. You go to one of the boxes, you ask the caretaker: “What is it?” They answer you: "Chekhov." Of course, I was most interested in the works of Eisenstein and Goya. The works of the second were a gift from the Spaniards to Russia in 1937.

I immediately remember your exhibition in 2014 in New York, where you redrawn with charcoal the paintings of the great American abstract expressionists. Both now and then these exhibitions, on the one hand, are group exhibitions, but on the other hand, they are your personal ones.

IN Gang of Cosmos I researched the post-war period, very interesting period American history. I was fascinated by the difference between a brushstroke and a stroke of charcoal. It can be said that I translated the works of Pollock, Newman, Mitchell into black and white. Of course, I took canonical works that are more than just works, since they have their own context around them, which interested me no less. Abstract expressionism appeared after the world destroyed itself and rebooted again in euphoria. Then the country had hope, but in 2014, maybe there is less of it.

In "Evidence" you, Goya and Eisenstein become co-authors of one exhibition.

This is Kate Fowl's idea, not mine. She came to me with this idea because these two artists have always fascinated me. In no way do I put myself on the same level with them, they are a great inspiration, a story. Interestingly, Eisenstein was very fond of Goya. And Goya at one time created storyboards, although cinema had not yet been invented. Goya and Eisenstein were engaged in the examination of time. I feel that as an artist, I act as a reporter talking about modern life. Perhaps today it is easier to do this, because the artist does not depend on the state as much as Eisenstein, or, like Goya, on religion. But we focused primarily on the beauty of the image. For example, they excluded texts from films so as not to get hung up on plots.

Have you changed the feeling of time for 55 years of creativity?

Historically, times today are more complex, frightening and exciting than ever before. The same Trump is an idiot, a moron and a fascist who threatens the security of the whole country if he is elected. I don't political artist and I don’t want to be, but sometimes I have to.

Yes, for example, you have a painting depicting the riots in Ferguson.

When I first saw photos of Ferguson in the newspapers, I didn't believe it was the USA. I thought maybe it's Afghanistan or Ukraine? But then I took a closer look at the uniforms of the police and realized: this is happening under my nose. It was a shock.

For me, dystopia has always been associated with the 1980s, which I did not find. But according to films and books, it seems that it was then that a dark future was predicted, in which we begin to live now.

Everything changed on September 11, 2001, it's a completely different world now. The world has become more global, but on the other hand, more fragmented. Do you know what the main problem USA? It's not a nation or a tribe, it's sport Team. A sports team always wants to win. Our big problem is that we do not know how to live without constant victories. This can lead to disaster because the stakes are always high.

Charcoal lends itself well to depicting a bleak future.

Yes, but I always leave a degree of hope in the work. After all, a work of art is always about the beauty that the artist sees in real world. I try to make people think when looking at my paintings. In a way, my paintings are designed to freeze a bit the endless pipeline of images that appear every second in the world. I try to slow it down by turning the photo into a charcoal painting. And besides, everyone draws - here you are talking to me on the phone and probably scribbling something on a napkin - there is something basic and ancient in these lines, and I collide this with photographs taken sometimes in a second - on a phone or a soap dish. And then I spend months drawing one image.

You once said that you create paintings from dust because you use charcoal.

Yes, I love dust and dirt. And I like to realize that this is how they painted cave people. That is, my technique is one of the oldest in the world. Prehistoric.

You are so fond of antiquity and at the same time filmed cyberpunk "Johnny Mnemonic" - something radically different from your main passion.

Well you noticed. The irony is that the Internet has become the same caves where people have fun in a primitive way.

Do you remember the time without the Internet. How it was?

Oh yes, that time. Interestingly, the internet has allowed me to find images that, in the old days, would have forced me to subscribe to magazines or go to libraries. The Internet gave me the opportunity to get to any picture. He made me think about the volume of images that appear in the world every second.