Clearly one of my favorite music periods is the post-punk era from the mid 70s to early 80s. One particular movement during this era was the New York No Wave art and music scene. It's where experimentation, atonal noise, repetitive drones, saxophone squawks and violent confrontations were featured at punk rock clubs like Max's Kansas City. Legendary bands like Sonic Youth, the Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Suicide were all sired in this movement's underground cool.
Robert Longo created his most seminal works during this time, called "Men in the Cities," where he crafted images of New York's best dressed and coolest people writhing, twisting, falling and dancing.
I noticed a lot of fashion magazines seem to really like his work. This makes a lot of sense. The movement and clothes are all well stylized (Paper Magazine did a fashion spread a few months ago inspired by his work). I always felt that Prada should have asked him to do their campaigns.
This image is one of his most famous
The famous cover of Glenn Branca's "The Ascension."
Longo went on to do some other amazing pieces during the 90s, like his series "Black Flag" and "Bodyhammers and Death Stars." He even dabbled in some directing (New Order's video for "Bizarre Love Triangle" and he directed blockbuster flop Johnny Mnemonic).
Pieces from:
"Black Flags"
"Bodyhammers and Death Stars"
A magnum with a long barrel
"Monsters."
His studio.
A recent drawing featured in Purple Magazine. Issue #11 has a great interview with him.
Mad Men's opening credits definitely pulled influences from Longo.
images from Robert Longo's website and Purple Magazine
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