Robert Longo Study of After Soulages, Painting, 2022

In his most recent series of works, Robert Longo has recreated paintings by artists active in Europe after the Second World War in his signature medium of charcoal on paper. His drawing of French artist Pierre Soulages’ painting lies at the heart of Longo’s exploration of the connection between European Art Informel and American Action Painting. By carefully recreating every brushstroke and groove of black paint, he rediscovers through Soulages’ hand the potential of his own monochrome medium. As Longo says, ‘the biggest difference is how long it takes to make a brushstroke, versus how long it takes to draw a brushstroke.’ This allows him to slow down the time of the image’s creation and consumption, to arrive, as the Louvre curator Dominique de Font-Réaulx describes it, at ‘the sensitive and intimate meaning of these works’.