Robert Longo Men in the Cities For Sale

Robert Longo's Men in the Cities series (1979–83) is one of the defining bodies of work in American art of the post-war period. Working from photographs he took of friends — city professionals in business attire — who he instructed to throw themselves against a wall or react to thrown objects, Longo traced their projected silhouettes onto paper and then worked the drawings up into monumental large-scale charcoal and graphite works of extraordinary technical and emotional power.

The resulting figures — contorted, thrown, mid-fall, ecstatic or anguished in postures drawn from both violence and dance — operate as simultaneous images of corporate culture, physical vulnerability, and existential drama. The suits they wear place them in the world of business; the violence of their poses suggests something far more primal. Men in the Cities captures the ambiguity and anxiety of urban professional life in Reagan-era America while transcending its moment to offer enduring images of the human body under force and duress. The series made Longo internationally famous and remains among the most significant bodies of work produced by his generation. Works from this series are held in major museum and private collections worldwide.