Robert Longo (b. 1953). Untitled (Pillow from Consulting Room Couch, 1938), from the Freud Drawings series, 2001. Ch...

Description

Robert Longo (b. 1953)
Untitled (Pillow from Consulting Room Couch, 1938), from the Freud Drawings series, 2001
Charcoal on mounted paper
48 x 50-3/8 inches (121.9 x 128 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf;
Sotheby's London, March 11, 2015, lot 145;
Private collection, London.

Untitled (2001), part of Robert Longo's famed Freud Drawings series, reflects the artist's fascination with power, beauty, and horror, conjured in his portrayal of seemingly benign objects or events. In 1938, days before fleeing Nazi prosecution to relocate to London, Sigmund Freud and his family invited Edmund Engelman to photograph their home as well as Freud's office and consulting rooms at Berggasse 19, in Vienna. The resulting catalog became the catalyst for Longo's series. These thirty large-scale charcoal drawings either recreate individual photographs, or magnify key objects, reaffirming the historical significance of the images. In this case, rather than sketching Freud's consulting couch in its entirety, Longo highlights a single square pillow. Encapsulated in almost complete darkness, the white pillow emerges as a remnant of Freud's pioneering work. Velvety and intimate, the drawing points to an impending absence - the impending exile and the horror caused by the Nazis. In Longo's words, the Freud photographs "enabled me to [...] become the patient [...]. I felt as if I had arrived for an appointment to find the premises deserted, but undisturbed - left for me to explore in solitude."



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