Robert Longo
He captured the anxious energy of 1980s America in his monumental drawings of businesspeople caught in silent, contorted spasms.
Born 1953 (age 73)·New York-based artist, filmmaker, and musician·Birthday: January 7·Baby Boomers
Biography
Robert Longo arrived on the New York art scene not with a whisper, but with the explosive, graphic force of his 'Men in the Cities' series. These large-scale, hyper-realistic drawings of men in suits and women in dresses frozen in dramatic, often agonized poses became instant icons of the 1980s, reflecting the era's underlying tensions of power, violence, and repressed emotion. Longo, who also fronted a band, approached art with a rock star's intensity and a filmmaker's eye, creating work that often felt like a single frame ripped from an epic, unseen movie. His practice expanded to include monumental sculptures of twisting waves and apocalyptic guns, photorealistic charcoal renderings of historic events like the H-bomb test, and ambitious film projects. A central figure of the Pictures Generation, Longo has spent decades using his technical mastery to interrogate the images—from news photos to Hollywood cinema—that shape our collective consciousness and fears.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Robert was born in 1953, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Robert Was Born
The biggest hits of 1953
#1 Movie
Peter Pan
Best Picture
From Here to Eternity
#1 TV Show
I Love Lucy
Robert's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1953Born
DNA structure discovered by Watson and Crick
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $8,750Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Song from Moulin Rouge" — Percy FaithBest Picture: From Here to Eternity
1958Started school
NASA founded
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Volare" — Domenico ModugnoBest Picture: Gigi
1966Became a teenager
Star Trek premieres on television
Gas: $0.32/galHome: $14,200Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"The Ballad of the Green Berets" — SSgt Barry SadlerBest Picture: A Man for All Seasons
1969Could drive
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1971Could vote
Voting age lowered to 18 in the US
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $18,100Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Joy to the World" — Three Dog NightBest Picture: The French Connection
1974Turned 21
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1983Turned 30
Internet adopts TCP/IP, creating the modern internet
Gas: $1.16/galHome: $57,700Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Every Breath You Take" — The PoliceBest Picture: Terms of Endearment
1993Turned 40
European Union officially established
Gas: $1.11/galHome: $86,600Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"I Will Always Love You" — Whitney HoustonBest Picture: Schindler's List
2003Turned 50
US invades Iraq; Human Genome Project completed
Gas: $1.59/galHome: $146,000Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"In Da Club" — 50 CentBest Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2013Turned 60
Edward Snowden reveals NSA surveillance programs
Gas: $3.53/galHome: $152,800Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Thrift Shop" — Macklemore & Ryan LewisBest Picture: 12 Years a Slave
2023Turned 70
ChatGPT goes mainstream; Israel-Hamas war begins
Gas: $3.52/galHome: $361,600Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Joe Biden"Flowers" — Miley CyrusBest Picture: Oppenheimer
2026Age 73 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Created the 'Men in the Cities' series (1979-1983), defining drawings that critiqued 1980s urban corporate culture.
- Co-founded the influential New York alternative space Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in 1974.
- Directed the cult film 'Johnny Mnemonic' (1995), an early cyberpunk adaptation of a William Gibson story.
- Produced 'The Destroyer Cycle,' a series of large-scale charcoal drawings of nuclear explosions and natural disasters.
Did You Know?
Longo was the lead singer and guitarist for the band Menthol Wars in the late 1970s.
He used friends and fellow artists, like Cindy Sherman and Richard Prince, as models for the 'Men in the Cities' poses.
His work was prominently featured in the 2010 Whitney Museum exhibition 'The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984.'
Longo initially wanted to be a filmmaker and studied sculpture, which influences his cinematic, large-scale approach to drawing.
““I make pictures because I can’t make things right in the world, but I can make a perfect world inside the picture.””
