American artist Robert Longo presents his most recent series of monumental charcoal drawings paying homage to the European pioneers of post-war art.

Following his 2014 series of drawings based on American Abstract Expressionism, in this exhibition, Longo explores the work of Karel Appel, Sandra Blow, Jean Dubuffet, Sam Francis, Arshile Gorky, Hans Hartung, Hans Hofmann, Asger Jorn, Yves Klein, Willem de Kooning, Maria Lassnig, Piero Manzoni, Joan Mitchell, Pierre Soulages, Wols and Zao Wou-Ki.

Transposing their disparate works into a large-scale format and shades of black and white, Longo brings together the different approaches of these painters to form a new, unified visual language.

Longo’s ambition was to translate these paintings into his own language, to free the language imprisoned in a work by recreating it in his own style, to grasp, through a process of remaking and reinvention, the artist’s thought, which is discernible through intention and in gesture. — Louvre curator Dominique de Font-Réaulx