subject: Why Did George Condo's Works Arouse Much Controversy? [print this page] In Oct. 18th, the retrospective exhibition of the artist George Condo was opened in Hayward Gallery in Landon. This exhibition was called "George Condo: Mental States, displaying multiple queens' portraits, one of which was complained by the British people when it was shoed in Tate Museum in 2006.
The works of this exhibition were on display from January 26 to May 8 in New Museum in New York. This was the first collection of 80 pieces of paintings and sculptures throughout the 28 art years of George Condo. He was a really fruitful artist, which made him well known by the whole world. This exhibition carefully selected his works since 1982 in the unique concept and highlighted his artistic exploration career in the composition of chapters with theme and style. The exhibition also reflected his special creation philosophy especially the ability to convey "mental state" by human facial expressions. "George Condo: mental state" was co-organized by Hayward Gallery in London and New Museum in New York. After the show in London, all the works would be sent to show in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam of Holland and Schirn Kunstalle in Frankfurt.
When the works were showed in New York at the beginning of this year, American media remarked that George Condo was the greatest one among so many artists. His trademark style was "mutable surrealism". There were extruded cartoon faces and improvised exaggerated cubism frequently appearing in his works. Facing any trend in the art world, he always adhered to his own personality, setting a good example for the young artists. In the middle of 1980s, Condo began to distinguish different groups of artists according to his own cognition. He applied the creation skills of the older artists to the contemporary oil painting, which was a leading innovation in the world dominated by new impressionism paintings.
By 1990s, Condo mainly engaged in recreation in the works of many older masters, which became the major creative inspiration of younger generations of painters. In the past 20 years, his novel and traditional works brought much surprise to the viewers. As the art critic Peter Schjedahl said in a remark of "the Village Voice", "Condo has created a perfect, senior and interesting creation standard for other contemporary oil painters."
George Condo (1957- ) is one of most influential living artists in the contemporary United States. His works have a wide range, including painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture, which are considered to be the innovative form of European traditional art form. Condo once held extensive exhibitions in the USA and even throughout the whole Europe together with the United States Whitney Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, Houston Museum of Contemporary Art, the Mexico Monterey Museum of Contemporary Art, France Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Germany Baden-Baden Art Gallery, Holland Mass River Art Gallery as well as Berlin Irish Museum of Modern Art. His many works were permanently preserved in lots of museums, such as New York Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Art, New York Solomon Guggenheim Museum, the Buffalo Albu Wright Knox Museum in New York, etc.
