Robert Longo: Charcoal Volume 2

Astonishing, hyperrealistic black-and-white drawings of wings, urban landscapes, x-rayed paintings and more

A sequel to the 2011 publication, Charcoal Volume 2 presents the charcoal drawings of American artist Robert Longo (born 1953) from 2012 to the present. This large-format, elaborately designed catalog—printed on natural paper using a tritone process and bound in half linen—is a continuation of the first volume. It includes his recent series from the past 10 years such as Death from Above (2012–16), Hungry Ghosts (2015–17) and the Destroyer Cycle (2016–20). Together, they form a comprehensive compendium of this central oeuvre by the legendary New York artist, who was a key figure in founding the Pictures Generation in the 1980s and also directed some of the most iconic music videos of the decade. In this new catalog, essays by Tim Griffin and Haley Mellin address the existential questions of our time that are at the heart of these new, large-scale, hyperrealistic drawings: war, violence, capitalism, the rising division of American society and the possibilities of political protest and individual freedom in the face of the overwhelming power of the media.