By GRACE KRAKOW

Robert Longo used to view the future as a path we forge ahead on, but over time, he has come to see it as something rushing toward us, reshaping our past at an exponential rate. This perspective raises essential questions: How do we keep up? How do we avoid repeating history? This is the crux of his exhibition, Robert Longo: An Accelerated History, on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum until February 25, 2025. The survey exhibition is his first solo show in the Midwest in 30 years and a must see.

Longo considers his art an act of resistance. As a prominent figure of The Pictures Generation, he challenges us to rethink our assumptions using archetypes of power and authority. Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Margaret Andrea, notes that since Longo began his Destroyer Cycle series in 2014, his work has gained urgency. It serves as a call to attention and action. These works tower over the viewer: a police riot line in Ferguson, the dismantling of a Confederate monument, and the migrant crisis. Longo aims for viewers to experience the exhibition as if walking through a movie. This experience is unsettlingly dystopian, considering the works resemble photographs extracted from the daily news cycle. 

They are in fact intricately detailed charcoal drawings. Longo prefers the term hyper-real over photorealistic as his art is not a replication of reality, but images compiled and modified to evoke specific atmospheres. Longo plays with the “truth” of an image. Influenced by John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Longo prompts viewers to reflect not only on the subject, but on the act of looking itself. How do our backgrounds and the broader historical context influence our perceptions? This inquiry is embodied in Longo’s Dürer’s Solid (2012), which reflects both his drawings and the viewers in the room. The exhibition is punctuated by sounds resembling gunshots; however, this is another layer of subversion—what we hear is the sound of paper ripping as he tears images in Icarus Rising (2019).

Longo speaks of making his drawings like a sculptor, employing his classical training, building layers and chiseling away details. This technique invites viewers to scrutinize the works, searching for the artist’s hand. As one draws closer, the hyper-real image dissolves into abstraction. Longo identifies as an abstract artist working representationally, finding kinship with the Abstract Expressionists. As an American, these are his great classical artists of history; his reverence for them is explored through his Gang of Cosmos series.

The exhibition culminates in a sobering reflection on American history: colonialism, genocide, a fractured democracy, the opioid epidemic, and the climate crisis. These weighty themes prompt us to consider what actions we can take against current crises and how we can prevent history from repeating its darker chapters. Although the exhibition's weight is palpable, Longo offers glimmers of hope, which he says has two daughters: a fierce anger at the state of the world and the courage to do something about it. Through this lens, Longo’s work not only critiques the past but also inspires action for a better future.

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Robert Longo: The Acceleration of History

October 25, 2024–February 23, 2025

Milwaukee Art Museum

Milwaukee, WI