Untitled (Flag)

Robert Longo (b. 1953) is an American artist, photographer, filmmaker and musician who was part of the Pictures Generation in 1980s New York. Longo is best known for his photorealistic drawings of tigers, flags, jumping figures, waves and guns. “Untitled (Flag)” is a hyper realistic digital pigment print of a rippling flag, with its detailed stars and stripes rendered mid-motion. Like an Old Master draftsman, Longo achieves intense dimension through chiseled lines and his mastery of chiaroscuro. Longo revisits the motif of the American flag throughout his oeuvre in different mediums of prints and drawings to explore themes of patriotism, power and identity. The grandeur of the flag in "Untitled (Flag)" is emphasized by both the close cropping of the monumental composition and highlight of every stitch and ripple with illuminating light. Longo’s monochromatic-style flag recalls his Black Flag series of blackened American flags from 1989-91 and references Jasper John’s White Flag from 1955. Longo’s work resides in the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.