Robert Longo

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Robert Longo, Untitled (Black Revolver), charcoal on mounted paper, 96 x 48 inches, 2008, courtesy of the artist

photographed by TERRY RICHARDSON
interview by GLENN O’BRIEN

ROBERT LONGO has been a big-time artist for quite some time. He arrived with the headline-grabbing group of American artists of the ’80s that made large, showy, high-impact work. He was an old-fashioned draughtsman in a conceptual world and his subject matter was seen as sensationalistic. He came off like a macho man in a milieu in which feminist artists were ascendant. He was one of those big, famous New York artists who got to direct a film, and like most of those films, it kind of flopped.  He moved to Europe and went low-profile. But he hung in there, and every once in a while he produced work that brought back the old Wow! he was always…