Chris Dennis Art: George Condo

Pics had to be surreptitious, so the cell was the only option. The exhibition continues until March 12, 2017. Holding contemporary Artists up to "the masters" is always a risky proposition but there was a lot to digest here and definitely worth going back to, when I have more time.

George Condo. Confrontation. Museum Berggruen. Berlin

George Condo. Renaissance Actor.

Klee. Condo. Klee

George Condo. Velazquez Portrait.

George Condo. Day One

George Condo

George Condo - detail.

Pablo Picasso - Dora Maar mit grünen Fingernägeln.

George Condo.

Picasso. Condo. Picasso

Press release:

„It’s about putting things together and seeing how they react to one another. Whereas a dialogue is a more placid, almost prosaic platform for discussion. One has dialogues every day. I could have a dialogue every day with the lady down the street who’s selling cupcakes. But if I say to the cupcake lady, ‘Something is wrong with the frosting. Why is it blue?’ – suddenly we’re having more of a confrontation. And then it’s memorable!” George Condo, 2016
On Nov. 19, 2016, Museum Berggruen opens an exhibition of works by American painter George Condo (b. 1957, Concord, New Hampshire). This first ever large-scale exhibition of contemporary art at Museum Berggruen since its opening combines works by George Condo from the early 1980s through today with works by classical modernist artists from the collection of Berlin’s Nationalgalerie. George Condo. Confrontation will be on view throughout the museum, and many of the paintings, drawings, collages by the American artist selected are to be shown to the public for the very first time in this show.
The presentation of masterpieces by Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, Klee and Giacometti from Museum Berggruen alongside Condo’s works develops an open field of references. Since the early 1980s, Condo refers in his works with a mixture of humor, irony, and veneration to the entire spectrum of European and American art. For his in part grotesque visual imagination, he takes up genres like the nude, the still life, and the portrait. Playfully, Condo combines references to art history, in particular formal and motivic references to the artists of classical modernism, whose once shocking cubist paintings have long since entered the canon of art history. To the same extent, popular culture also flows into Condo’s works: his portraits reveal borrowings from comic figures like Batman, Bugs Bunny, or Mickey Mouse.
The exhibition George Condo. Confrontation understands painting from the 20th and 21st century as a process of mutual references and traditions constantly in motion, still continuing today in popular culture.
A multi-part publication including an interview between Udo Kittelmann and George Condo, essays by Felicia Rappe and Olivier Berggruen, an illustrated book with all exhibited works by Condo, and a story by Daniel Kehlmann will be published in conjunction with the exhibition (40 Euro, available at the museum or online www.georgecondoinberlin.de).
The entrance ticket for George Condo. Confrontation (14 Euro, reduced 7 Euro) includes admission to the permanent exhibition of Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg and the special exhibition Surreale Sachlichkeit, which presents the rich holdings of art from the collection of Berlin’s Nationalgalerie from the 1920s and 1930s.