Robert Langdon
By Teresa Giordano
Connect the dots between Catholic art and icons, the album covers of the Beatles, the Ramones, and the Pretenders, Andy Warhol, Basquiat, and Diane Arbus, and you have the influences that shaped Robert Langdon’s artistic sensibilities. An eclectic aesthetic that he brings to his photography, poetry, and gallery management.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Robert spent 12 years in Catholic school, where art classes were not a high priority. Still, he managed to absorb the glorious aesthetic of religious sculptures and paintings. Maybe that wasn’t a bad jumping off point for the his attraction to the wild and complicated symbolism of Warhol and Basquiat. But it was the stylized photography of Punk and Post Punk album covers that influenced his decision to study photography after high school and then to a career in commercial photography.
Photography paid the bills but Robert found his personal form of self-expression in poetry. His select stories and poems, written over a 25 year period, are published in “The Candied Road Ahead,” some of which are paired with photographs inspired by his poems.
Robert spent 13 years in San Francisco leading poetry workshops at the Harvey Milk Institute while he was Director of Sales and Marketing for a nonprofit publisher of children’s bilingual and multicultural books; a job that involved working with fine artists who were illustrating the books, guiding their process from sketch, through drafts, to final illustrations.
Back again on the east coast, he was working for a large publisher and reevaluating his corporate career when a friend approached him with a proposition. How would he like to manage three art galleries? The galleries would showcase local artists and provide jobs for people who suffered traumatic brain injuries. Robert describes it as the ultimate community experience, curating group shows of community based artists and providing opportunities for people in need. The project lasted a decade before he began to look for a new challenge. He found it in Saugerties, where friends of his had settled. In Saugerties he found everything that appealed to him: visual artists, writers, and a strong sense of community. So he opened an art gallery. Founded in 2016, Emerge Gallery and Art Space has featured Soho abstract artists, solo and group exhibitions of Hudson Valley artists, small and large works, and opportunities for writers and visual artists to connect. His Tell Me a Story series includes artwork that invites writers to finish the story that artists began in their work.
The story of Emerge is the story of Robert Langdon’s passions and priorities converging on Main Street, Saugerties. Community. Visual arts. The written word. It is a story well told.
