The rioters who attacked the US Capitol constructing this previous January had been emboldened not solely by ex-president Donald Trump’s dispute over the 2020 election outcomes however by the evolving phenomenon of individuals disseminating false data on an enormous scale through social media. Robert Longo addresses the notorious incident and its attendant conundrums in Untitled (Riot on the U.S. Capitol; January sixth, 2021; Based mostly on {a photograph} by Mark Peterson), 2021, a charcoal-on-paper drawing measuring greater than seven by eleven toes.
Right here, in probably the most riveting works in his debut solo present at Tempo—below a title, “I do fly / After summer time merrily,” borrowed from strains in Shakespeare’s The Tempest—Longo presents his personal aggressive provocation throughout the safely rarefied house of a distinguished Chelsea gallery. The disturbing picture options a number of figures enveloped by a smoky haze. One within the foreground, with flagpole in hand, wears a Trump 2020 knit cap and a masks depicting an American flag, whereas a background determine has donned a gasoline masks. Poignantly, a hand thrust into the scene on the far proper holds a smartphone, little doubt to file the mayhem; it additionally serves as a reminder of the machine’s ostensible function in serving to set up the mob.
Whereas this composition was predetermined by the {photograph} that served as a supply picture, Longo’s rendering of it at mural scale with a labor-intensive precisionist drawing approach may appear to aggrandize the political fringe components looking for to topple the federal government. But the anonymity of the characters and the ominous tone of the work—achieved by way of the black-and-white palette in addition to the deal with spreading smoke—preclude any effort to glorify this occasion that resulted within the deaths of 5 folks. As a substitute, the immersive, murky scene of self-fashioned patriots prompts questions. Have been the rioters merely trespassing on authorities property, a violation with which some have been charged? Or ought to the incident be seen as home terrorism?
Emotionally compelling, the imposing drawing is just not framed below glass, an uncommon determination for the show of Longo’s drawings. The delicacy of the marks—uncovered to the weather (albeit in a managed local weather) and to the general public—would possibly correspond to the fragility of democracy itself.