George Condo
22 Feb - 28 May 2012
GEORGE CONDO
Mental States
Curator: Ralph Rugoff (Director, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London)
Project directors at the Schirn Kunsthalle: Katharina Dohm, Heike Höcherl
22 February – 28 May, 2012
Ironic, provocative, witty—since his beginnings in New York’s East Village in the early 1980s American artist George Condo has produced a distinctive body of work. His paintings, characterized by mordant humor, surrealist-tinged absurdity, and exuberant pathos, make repeated reference to the traditions of American and European art history of the last 500 years, from Velázquez by way of Picasso to Gorky. In partnership with the Hayward Gallery in London, the Schirn is pleased to present the first comprehensive retrospective in Germany of Condo’s art. Condo works in a style that can be described as artificial realism, and both his paintings and sculptures display his ongoing examination of human physiognomy and all-too-human mental states. Organized thematically and stylistically in groups, sixty-six important paintings from different creative periods, as well as a selection of roughly ten sculptures and new works by the artist will be exhibited at the Schirn.
Mental States
Curator: Ralph Rugoff (Director, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London)
Project directors at the Schirn Kunsthalle: Katharina Dohm, Heike Höcherl
22 February – 28 May, 2012
Ironic, provocative, witty—since his beginnings in New York’s East Village in the early 1980s American artist George Condo has produced a distinctive body of work. His paintings, characterized by mordant humor, surrealist-tinged absurdity, and exuberant pathos, make repeated reference to the traditions of American and European art history of the last 500 years, from Velázquez by way of Picasso to Gorky. In partnership with the Hayward Gallery in London, the Schirn is pleased to present the first comprehensive retrospective in Germany of Condo’s art. Condo works in a style that can be described as artificial realism, and both his paintings and sculptures display his ongoing examination of human physiognomy and all-too-human mental states. Organized thematically and stylistically in groups, sixty-six important paintings from different creative periods, as well as a selection of roughly ten sculptures and new works by the artist will be exhibited at the Schirn.