george condo paintings

This survey of three decades of work by George Condo includes about 50 portraits, most of fictional subjects. More Photos »

The American artist George Condo made a splash in New York in the early 1980s with a line of surrealist-style figure paintings. It was tasty, erudite stuff, freaky but classy, a Mixmaster version of old master, with a big glop of Pop tossed in. Then he went to Europe, found an avid audience and stayed for a decade, mostly in Paris. To the New York art world, myopic and memoryless, he might have moved to Mars.

In 1995 he resettled in Manhattan, and has been there since, producing at high volume and exhibiting prominently without generating the kind of main-stage mojo that has made a younger artist like John Currin — who is hugely indebted to Mr. Condo’s example — a star.

But now, finally, and with minimum fanfare, he’s having his first institutional career survey here. It’s titled “George Condo: Mental States.” It’s at the New Museum. And it’s sensational.

It demonstrates, among other things, what anyone who has tracked his career already knows. He’s the missing link, or one of them (Carroll Dunham is another), between an older tradition of fiercely loony American figure painting —Willem de Kooning’s grinning women, Philip Guston’s ground-meat guys, Jim Nutt’s cubist cuties, anything by Peter Saul — and the recent and updated resurgence of that tradition in the work of Mr. Currin, Glenn Brown, Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz and others.

Not that Mr. Condo — born in 1957 in New Hampshire — requires historical positioning to justify a survey. One glance at the installation of about 50 of his mainly fictional portraits on the New Museum’s fourth floor tells you otherwise. Some of the paintings are stronger and stranger than others. But covering a long wall up to the ceiling, with no two images alike, they add up to a tour de force of stylistic multitasking and figurative variety.

Your first instinct is to spot sources for those styles and figures: Picasso, Arcimboldo, Cookie Monster, Goya, Looney Tunes. But you only go so far with this because Mr. Condo isn’t much into wholesale appropriation. He’s interested in invention. Everything is pretty much straight from his brain.

The earliest picture in the show, “The Madonna,” dates from 1982 and gives a basic sense of how Mr. Condo works. He painted his subject, a Renaissance staple, straightforwardly, then did something funny to it. He scraped some paint away so that the face became blurred and slightly separated from the head, like a slipping mask. This subtle effect turned a historically and ideologically loaded subject into contemporary caprice, though without taking the history and ideas away. They’re here, but detached, like the Madonna’s face.

Even after being messed around with, she looks fairly normal, which cannot be said of most of the figures surrounding her. These include other quasi-religious images — Mr. Condo grew up as a Roman Catholic — including a Mary Magdalene with bared breasts and sticking-out rodent ears. Taken as an icon it’s deeply bizarre, yet it doesn’t feel entirely irreverent, which makes it even odder.

Various gods of art history get their due and take their licks. The 1994 “Memories ofRembrandt” borrows the tawny palette of that Dutch artist’s late self-portraits but reduces his facial features to a juicy stew of eyeballs and chunks of flesh. Throughout the show pieces of Picasso are everywhere, puzzled together, piled up like kindling, broken up, gnawed on, inserted wherever there’s room. Mr. Condo clearly can’t get enough of him.

News photographs of public personalities have served as models for portraits, and occasionally he leaves these people looking more or less like themselves, as he did a few years back in a series of 15 portraits of Elizabeth II of Britain. One of these images at the New Museum, “The Insane Queen,” is, in its zany way, almost respectful of her. Others — the queen with a detachable chin, a clown smile, a carrot stuck through her head — are not, and landed Mr. Condo in hot water when he brought them to the Tate Modern.

A few paintings, and several gilded bronze heads in the show, are named for characters — “The Barber,” “The Butler,” “The Alcoholic” — in Mr. Condo’s private mythology of cultural types. And then there are portraits that are just mysterious hallucinations, floating free and unrooted.

In “Red Antipodular Portrait” a bug-eyed creature stares out apprehensively from behind cascades of scarlet fur. A kind of Bichon Maltese-Yosemite Sam hybrid, it exists in a one-species universe, unconnected to art or life or history. Yet it gives the impression of having feelings, so it evokes a complicated response: amusement with a tug of empathy. Isn’t empathy going too far? Isn’t this picture just a cartoon? Within the world of Mr. Condo’s portraits, nothing is “just” anything.

What could be better than another great show at Paul Kasmin ?? How about two at the same time…

I have seen a lot of great stuff at Paul Kasmin , both in their main gallery and also in the smaller gallery across the street. They tend to show good solid work and they are very smart about HOW the work is shown, which is just as important.

During the summer galleries tend to show more group or across the board shows, which are nice but what’s even better is when you have two galleries and you can show a group type show and also showcase another interesting individual artist as well.

Process and abstraction is just a good collection of excellent quality work which as you might guess had to do with the art making process. Not a lot to figure out here, but very cool to look at.

Across the street however is the KENT HENRICKSEN exhibit called A VENOMOUS BLOOM. ….

What I love here is the whole room becomes the art. It’s a total sensory experience. The paintings are a little frighting and the snakes are sort of ominous and yet the whole thing is very luxurious at the same time. I’m attracted and repelled , my favorite state to be in… maybe that’s why I like scary movies so much… hmmm . While I was checking this out there were people who walked in and walked right out. I didn’t understand. Are people really that turned off by snakes ?  I like snakes as long as they are not in my bed with me and or angry, but you can’t deny the art is beautiful. Anyways – this is another summer recommendation … drop by for a minute or 5 , which is about how long it takes to see this little spot. It’s worth it …   Click here to go to the Paul Kasmin Site

One of my favorite galleries is Stux Gallery in Chelsea. They have an edgy mixture of programing that is always intelligent , interesting and timely. There is a certain aesthetic I love there and that I relate to having spent so much time in Los Angeles, the city where I believe my soul is from, even though at present I identify as a New Yorker.

I had been waiting to write about something I really like there and this exhibit is the perfect opportunity. I usually go back to my locker at the gym after doing the galleries on Thursdays and I even overheard someone talking about the show ., in the locker room, with the paintings with “the eyes.” I knew they were speaking about this show, the “eyes” paintings are arresting and dreamy at the same time.

The individual works in the show are great on there own, they have a very forward , dark hip look without hitting you over the head with any of these characteristics, but what impressed me more about the show is that this really makes the first time , that I have seen an art exhibit that deals with the Middle East Crisis in a way that seems appropriate for artists and curators to address it.

I mean it just doesn’t make sense to me to go to galleries that are selling expensive artworks to people who have the money to buy them , and see these angry artworks by american artists about this subject. It would be a different story if the artworks were by angry people from the Middle East , that would seem more meaningful to me, but you don’t need to tell me or the art going public at large that invading the middle east and war and oil etc etc etc are all bad. Most of us going to see art are educated and generally open minded and liberal thinking , at least to some extent, and have come to this conclusion on our own.

Some of these kinds of artworks seem to me to turn into a real low brow attempt to get people to notice the art, kind of like 911 artworks for sale on the street.

Barakat: The Gift at Stux Gallery , is not like this at all. This is an artistically felt response to the stimulation and information that is changing our world because of this sad and hostile political climate. I admit , I did not do all the reading while at the gallery about the specific theme of the show , I don’t always find this necessary as I am often able to read artworks without the assistance of words, so the exact meaning of the gift I do not know, but the exhibit made me reflect on the inherent , inevitable cultural exchange that happens between two countries at war and sparked my interest in an aesthetic that has feet in both places at once, which is really what the role of art is.

I want to share with you another work of art that deals with this subject. It is an ongoing , what I would call installation piece, that may not be intended to be art , but really is in my book . It’s called Arlington West Santa Monica . Click on the link to check it out and go see the show at Stux Gallery.

While out doing the galleries last night ( I do them on Thursdays ) I was glad to catch up with Rare Gallery, which is quickly becoming a favorite. Their openings typically seem to be on Saturdays but they have their doors open on Thursdays sometimes, so I was able to catch up with them. They had another great show up by Artist Johnston Foster.

I was struck by the timing of this exhibit. I am walking around, as we all are, with these horrible images brought to us by our friends at BP and feeling sick about the whole nature vs man thing and this exhibit has the same themes running through it… industrial materials that create mutant animals ,and man’s disregard for other life forms on this planet.

I also flashed on a memory I had had and shared it with the gallery director. I remember when I was visiting Shanghai I was involved in something that had most of my attention and I was rushing to get somewhere when I happened to pass a blanket on the side walk , kind of like those blankets people put out to sell their belongings , seemingly to raise drug money, and i noticed on this blanket there seemed to be a tiger paw cut off and for sale. I couldn’t be sure if I imagined that , but i thought it was strange. Turns out , that’s what it was ! and it’s not so strange !! They sell them all the time like that . It makes me so sad the way we treat out animal kingdom neighbors …. ahh sad note but go see the show at Rare – it’s worth it . Rare Gallery

It’s that time of the year again when galleries are packed with people just before it goes quiet for a while in the art world, and typically many of the shows are group themed summer shows. This is a great opportunity to see some otherwise up and coming art by newer artists. The group shows are also really good at packing galleries because everyone is going to call up their whole posse to come out. I find these kind of shows work best when there is a strong curatorial message behind the show, and of course that’s what you are going to get at Marlborough Gallery.

To be honest I wasn’t aware of the “theme” of this show when I went there, I just knew it was all working together very nicely and that I was enjoying it. There are apparently three floors of this show , I have only been to the two floors of this gallery and regret not making it up to the third to see more.

Pheobe-Washburn

There are many many works in this show and, like I say, really worth going to check out. I enjoy the above artist’s work a lot for a number of reasons and I would be curious one day to speak with her in person to see if my impressions of the work match her intentions, she is very popular especially since her huge splash at the Whitney Biennial a couple years ago. Her name is Pheobe Washburn and her work in that exhibit stopped me in my tracks. Other works of hers are more elusive to me but great never the less. I am going to leave this post with a link to the Natural Renditions page to see more of the works for your-self. Check it out – it’s very nice.

Claude Monet Paintings at Gagosian Gallery

There is something about summer in New York that makes art even more interesting to see . Something about the fact that there are so many people out of town and the city gets quieter mixed with the heat . When you are out on the street and it’s bearing down on you then you head into a museum or a gallery and you a greeted by air conditioning and some visual , mental and creative stimulation it makes for a nice afternoon. Even when i go to a gallery and it’s really hot in there , it’s almost like I am paying my dues to go see something special and I don’t mind.

Going to see the Monet Show at the Gagosian is going to go down as one of the great summer art experiences ever….

I can’t be sure if Gagosian is selling the works or if the exhibit is up in a more charitable spirit to the art  going public or a little of both , but this exhibit is very much like going to a museum. You are only allowed to walk in one door and out the other, you have to check your belongings and  I didn’t ask but I had the good sense to not attempt to get any pictures of my own. ( all pictures on this blog post are directly from their site.). To visit the show is free.

Claude_Monet_Late_Work

Claude_Monet_Late_Work

Of course , the show is beautiful. How could it not be – it’s Monet, but what this show first began to impress upon me was the fact that all of these paintings when viewed from at least 20 feet away show such an amazing atmospheric effect. Everything in them appears to be floating. Up close the paintings have a completely different look and feel.

The first couple room are almost saying “Here are some great works by Monet so you have an idea about what the next couple rooms are going to be about…” They are the kind of paintings we love by Monet , but unusual in a way. They seemed , at least to me, to be examples of a little bit more painterly approach.

The next room it is obvious that there is a different direction. Some of the works appear to be oil studies – great ones though -( like Irises was an oil study for Van Gough) They even exhibit a sort of Japanese feel like some of the other impressionist works of that time , but they also begin to incorporate something that looks a bit like German expressionism and a lot like modern abstract painting.(Sadly I do not have pictures of these later works here you will have to see the show or research these images online) It is at this point I began to think “What would Monet’s work have been like had he lived another 30 years?? ” This new direction of painting has a dark edge to it , not fully developed yet , but headed in a fascinating direction. I got the sense somehow from the works That Monet had maybe died young but this was not the case at all, I guess I just wanted to see more and more of this late work.

The paintings also really bring together some significant ideas in art:

• What is abstract ?
• What role does photography play in the development of painting ?
• Isn’t any work of art abstract even if it represents something?
• Can a painting be abstract and realistic at the same time ?

There is a lot of info and many great images by Monet on Wikipedia check it out.

I will close this post by saying that aside from the works of art Monet created during his life time, the thing that inspires me as much about Monet is that he took a trash dump and turned it into a french garden to create many of his late works, and that sums up my theory of art in a nutshell. Art is a stage of transformation. You can take even garbage and bend it to make heaven.

Carsten Nicolai: moiré at Pace Wildenstein Gallery

I am a week or two behind getting some of my New York City art travels to galleries etc.. onto my blog – but I am out there never the less. This visit to Pace Wildenstein had to be at least two weeks ago, and was a fantastic opening. Below is a video I took at put up on Youtube of a kinetic sculpture in the show. It took me a while to figure out what it was even but it looked and felt like some very hi-tech sort of technology from the 1960′s. In a room of it’s own , this work really got my attention.

[wp-tube vid_id="LFZMiIYTRN8" /]

Carsten-Nicolai-moiré1glass-2010

There are a few large works in this show , but it is more than enough to keep your interest. These works are a fusion between minimalism and op art. Spare and austere but entertaining. This large sculpture in the middle of the first room really draws home the beauty in industrial/commercial materials.

Carsten-Nicolai-moiré1glass-2010

Pace Wildenstein certainly knows how to have a great opening and this was no exception. Packed with the Chelsea art crowd they always have enough room , wine , and glasses to go around – and then some. I always enjoy an opening here.

Carsten_Nicolai_moiré_schatten_2010

This third work I am showing in here seemed to be a minimalistic landscape , installation piece. It seems like heavy piano wires mounted to the wall. Across from this is a projector that is ever so slightly moving up and down which created shadows on the wall from the strings that give the impression of a living seascape, only in black and white. Definitely worth a visit .

It had been a couple of weeks since I had really seen anything out there at the galleries that was getting me excited, so It was like a breath of fresh air to see this Botero exhibit, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from Marlborough Gallery.

Always top notch work they show at Marlborough, they always have very nice openings and while this is , of course , a playground for the very wealthy,  I have never felt unwelcome or otherwise put off by anyone who works there, in fact quite the opposite, they are very helpful and informative.

I guess not knowing a whole lot about Botero, I assumed he wasn’t around anymore, partly because his work is so classic , it seems like it is from a much more distant era. These works are heroic, epic and the sort of works that a city buys rather than an individual. (I am sure the individuals who own them could probably own a city as well.)

Botero at Marlborough

Botero at Marlborough

His figures have always been a celebration of the robust human form. A sort of 3d Reubens mixed with  modern flare. These sculptures do not turn away from sexual references at all, in fact these works are quite sexual, but not in any kind of offensive way. There are sexual in a way as to say “we are sexual, animals are sexual, here you go.”

In addition to the terrific exhibit downstairs, Marlborough Chelsea will usually give you a second show on the second floor as well. On the second floor was one of those summer sort of group show exhibits you see a lot of through the summer when the art world gets to take a long vacation. This summer group showing had quite a bit of good things to see… here are a few images of some of the cool artworks upstairs.

Rock Sculpture Marlborough Chelsea

Drawing on Shaped Canvases

Small Acrylic Painting Marlborough Chelsea