An artist should know art history. Shock value only lasts so long. Robert Longo More Quotes by Robert Longo More Quotes From Robert Longo My degree was in sculpture. I always think that drawing is a sculptural process. I always feel like I'm carving the image out rather than painting the image. I'm carving it out with erasers and tools like that. I've always had this fondness for sculpture. Robert Longo degrees drawing thinking It's weird making a drawing of painting. I start to realize that charcoal is this incredibly fragile material. I'm making images of paintings out of dust. Robert Longo painting drawing dust An artist can have an intention, but the viewer has their own subjective experience. Robert Longo viewers intention artist When I look back on everything I've done, it all somehow makes sense to me. But it doesn't make sense when you're actually doing it. Robert Longo make-sense done looks I find that all these subjects that I'm dealing with tend to lead me to religion and politics one way or another. It's not something that I necessarily want to address, but it seems like it's screaming at me to pay attention to it. Robert Longo addresses want attention The artist has to be a guardian of the culture. Robert Longo guardian artist culture Art is a form of understanding like philosophy and science and mathematics are an understanding but the difference is that art has the capacity to hold all these different things. It is the form of understanding that is best suited for the contemporary time. Robert Longo differences philosophy art I'm trying to find answers. It can be quite frustrating, but at the same time, I'm never quite satisfied with what I'm doing, so I'm always looking for the next thing. Robert Longo next answers trying If you're fortunate enough with your history, like with Men in the Cities, your work becomes so absorbed in culture that the authorship of it doesn't exist anymore. Robert Longo cities men culture There are no guidelines for what happens when you get successful as an artist. My heroes were artists like Acconci, and he didn't make any money. That's what I thought success was. Robert Longo artist hero success A lot of us grew up in public. That often means that you have to fail in public too. Robert Longo failing grew-up mean I've been dealing with epic images, and I realized all of a sudden that I grew up in the age of epics. Robert Longo grew epic age I do have great respect for painting, but I am definitely not a painter. I make drawings of paintings, and I'm jealous of painting for sure, but, for me, the paper gives my work a limit. Robert Longo jealous drawing giving Dying young is the easy way out. It's much harder to keep your edge and keep it going. Robert Longo dying easy way As an artist - I'm sure like most creative people - you have a kind of board of directors that you make your work for. It's a group of people that you have, these friends, and you want to know what they think. In a weird way, you're making the work for them. Robert Longo artist people thinking I always imagine that I want to make art that is going to kill you,whether it’s going to do it visually or physically, I’ll take either way. Robert Longo want way art The translation process becomes a highly subjective thing - turning reds and blues into black-and-whiteness. It's really bizarre for me. Robert Longo bizarre black process The thing that's interesting as you get older as an artist is that the biggest challenge seems to be: how do you stay relevant? Robert Longo artist challenges interesting It's been like therapy to be able to play music and not embarrass my children too much. They've come to a bunch of the shows. It's kind of cool. I'm glad they like it. Robert Longo able play children One of the interesting things I discovered is that in the late 19th century, painters actually had black-and-white copies made of their own paintings. They chose it even over photographs because they knew the photographic medium would distort their work. Robert Longo painting black-and-white interesting
