Robert Longo Black Flag (Freedom… by any Means Necessary, Malcolm X) 1990 Bronze. 32 x 41 x 18 in. (81.3 x 104.1 x 45.7 cm). Incised “#II Robert Longo ‘90” on the reverse. This work is unique.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Exhibited Paris, Galerie Daniel Templon, Robert Longo March 17 – April 18, 1990 Literature C. Smulders and Galerie Daniel Templon, eds., Robert Longo Black Flags, Paris, 1990, p. 20 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay At that time, I was playing with the question of whether or not art had to have a subject matter… I realized that I had carried my country within me; and, more than my race or religion, I was an American, making American art. It’s funny, because a friend once told me that I was too American for America. Robert Longo in an interview withThomas Kellein, ed., Robert Longo Basel, 1991, p. 28 As subtle expressions of patriotism, Robert Longo’s Black Flags series represent a new stride the artist endeavored upon after arriving in Paris in early 1990.The Black Flags, of which the present lot is a prime example, are ultimately a result of Longo’s questioning of subject matter and its role in his creation.The excessive blackness the patinated bronze captures displays a muted verisimilitude to the American flag, the ‘stars and stripes’ appearing as vague articles upon close inspection, imperceptible, and at times no doubt, purposely concealed.What is more, the choice of medium – the heavy, fixed nature of molten bronze – seems to contradict the very nature of a flag blowing in the breeze.With a deliberate edge, Longo’s work captures that very element; here, the sculpture billows from its fixed state suspended on the gallery wall. At a time when politics proved disquieting for an expatriate like himself, his Black Flags no doubt mirror the artist’s own submissive confusion in the quest for patriotism.With coincidence, the last Black Flag Longo made was completed on January 16, 1991 the day in which the GulfWar began, and its very title echoes the famous doctrine of civil rights leader Malcolm X. Read More
Robert Longo Black Flag (Freedom… by any Means Necessary, Malcolm X) 1990 Bronze. 32 x 41 x 18 in. (81.3 x 104.1 x 45.7 cm). Incised “#II Robert Longo ‘90” on the reverse. This work is unique.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Exhibited Paris, Galerie Daniel Templon, Robert Longo March 17 – April 18, 1990 Literature C. Smulders and Galerie Daniel Templon, eds., Robert Longo Black Flags, Paris, 1990, p. 20 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay At that time, I was playing with the question of whether or not art had to have a subject matter… I realized that I had carried my country within me; and, more than my race or religion, I was an American, making American art. It’s funny, because a friend once told me that I was too American for America. Robert Longo in an interview withThomas Kellein, ed., Robert Longo Basel, 1991, p. 28 As subtle expressions of patriotism, Robert Longo’s Black Flags series represent a new stride the artist endeavored upon after arriving in Paris in early 1990.The Black Flags, of which the present lot is a prime example, are ultimately a result of Longo’s questioning of subject matter and its role in his creation.The excessive blackness the patinated bronze captures displays a muted verisimilitude to the American flag, the ‘stars and stripes’ appearing as vague articles upon close inspection, imperceptible, and at times no doubt, purposely concealed.What is more, the choice of medium – the heavy, fixed nature of molten bronze – seems to contradict the very nature of a flag blowing in the breeze.With a deliberate edge, Longo’s work captures that very element; here, the sculpture billows from its fixed state suspended on the gallery wall. At a time when politics proved disquieting for an expatriate like himself, his Black Flags no doubt mirror the artist’s own submissive confusion in the quest for patriotism.With coincidence, the last Black Flag Longo made was completed on January 16, 1991 the day in which the GulfWar began, and its very title echoes the famous doctrine of civil rights leader Malcolm X. Read More
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
