This work is part of the New York-based artist Robert Longo’s influential series Men in the Cities, which consists of 60 so-called ‘hyperrealistic’ drawings, which he made between 1977 and 1983. The series portrays young, smartly dressed men and women wearing business clothes and trapped in exaggerated, distorted poses, as if falling or dancing crazily and unrestrainedly to contemporary punk rock. This work features a woman, whose formal attire is in stark contrast to her dramatic, twisted pose. Maybe it is an image of a letting off steam and breaking out of her neat exterior. For Men in the Cities, Robert Longo drew inspiration from the final scene of the film The American Soldier (1970), in which two gangsters are unexpectedly shot and appear to be dancing as their bodies drop to the ground. Fascinated by the theatricality of this fatal moment, Longo wanted to capture what a body might look like after being hit by a bullet. As models for these dramatic movements and poses, Longo used his friends, including Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), who like Longo is part of the Pictures Generation. He photographed his models while being hit by tennis balls or startled by loud noises. This enabled Longo to capture the dramatic moments of the surprises and then transfer them to his large drawings. Today, Robert Longo’s series Men in the Cities is regarded as one of the iconic works of 1980s New York. It is even part of the American cult film American Psycho (2000), in which a couple of Longo’s lithographs are hanging in the apartment of the main character, Patrick Bateman.