Study for home (North and South Hemisphere), 2004

A New-York based artist, Robert Longo is a highly recognized figure in the art world for his work as an artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, he became known as the leading protagonist of the Pictures Generation, a group of artists who used appropriated images from mass media to make provocative critiques of the American society, economy and politics of that time. Longo's three-dimensional, thick-textured and photo-realistic charcoal drawings are a hallmark of his artistic practice.

From 1999 to 2008, Longo’s work focused exclusively on charcoal as a medium, embarking on the creation of a portfolio entitled The Essentials. The series of bomb blasts, sharks, planets, nebulae, sleeping children and roses that compose this collection were meant to capture his conception of the collective unconscious. Study from Home, created in 2004 and part of this psychical line of work, portrays a sharply contrasting drawing of the planet earth made with his signature materials- ink and charcoal.