Robert Longo’s Eric, NYC, 1980 (from Men in the Cities) is a striking c-print that reflects the artist’s fascination with stylized motion and emotional intensity. Inspired by cinematic death scenes, Longo began exploring these dramatic, contorted poses in the mid-1970s while living in Buffalo, later refining the concept after moving to New York with Cindy Sherman in 1976.

In this series, Longo staged his subjects – often friends and peers – by throwing objects at them to provoke spontaneous, exaggerated gestures. These moments were captured in photographs, which then served as the basis for his iconic large-scale drawings. The image of Ericcaptures that same charged energy, freezing a moment of expressive movement that blurs the line between dance, violence, and abstraction.