Crash Course: 5 Things To Know About Robert Longo (The New Supreme Skateboard Collaborator)

Image via Complex Original

Supreme just announced its new skateboard collaboration series, a three-deck project with artist Robert Longo. The New York skate brand continues to collaborate with great artists on its deck series, and Longo follows other greats including Richard Prince, Damien Hirst, and Takashi Murakami. Robert Longo is famous in the art world, but do you know who he is? Click on to read our Crash Course: 5 things you should know about Robert Longo.

1. He's From New York, and He’s Old Enough to be Your Dad

Robert Longo was born in 1953 in Brooklyn. He grew up on Long Island and studied at the Academia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy before returning to New York in the 1970s. Once he got back, he came up in the NYC art scene and continues to rep the city today. He’s no new jack to the scene, but he continues to be a force in both the gallery scene and in more commercial mediums (he just did this cover of Newsweek).

2. Most of His Work is Black and White

He studied sculpture, but Longo’s drawings are what sets him apart. And you can see sculptural lines in the way he draws. The chisel-y lines are high contrast, black and white, and all over awesome. His portfolio site can be seen here.

3. Patrick Bateman Has a Robert Longo in his "American Psycho" Apartment

American Psycho is an awesome movie, and Longo’s work fits nicely with Bateman’s black-and-white aesthetic. The piece in the movie is part of Longo’s famous "Men in the Cities" series, featuring contorted businessmen in agonizing poses.

4. Robert Longo is no Stranger to Collaboration

For its Fall-Winter 2010/2011 advertising campaign, Bottega Veneta’s Creative Director Tomas Maier hit up Longo to craft the campaign to resemble “Men in the Cities”. “He said something to the effect of ‘Instead of ripping you off, we want to hire you,’” Longo told W magazine of Maier’s courtship of him for the collaboration.

5. Longo was also a Video Director

Longo enjoyed a stint as music video director for New Order, R.E.M., and Megadeth. In the nineties, he also directed the cyberpunk film "Johnny Mnemonic", which is an eerie precursor to "The Matrix" (both which ironically star Keanu Reeves). Longo was also in his own band, "Robert Longo's Menthol Wars". Pretty cool.