George Condo is currently exhibiting a Los Angeles-inspired body of work at Hauser & Wirth‘s new location in West Hollywood. But for those of you in New York, the prolific American artist is concurrently showing a more introspective look at his drawing practice.
Housed at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan, Entrance to the Mind transports visitors into the artist’s thought process — from his earliest drawings as a teenager to the frantic and endearing works he is known for today. The subject to his portraits are often arbitrary and is rather a means to “visual thinking” as Condo likes to put it. “It’s just how you’re able to transmit or transcribe the image in your mind that makes all the difference,” the artist noted in an interview.
Saul Bass, arguably the greatest American graphic designer of the 20th Century, echoed Condo’s emphasis on drawing, once prompting design students to learn to draw. “If you don’t,” he noted, “you’re going to live your life getting around that and trying to compensate for that.” Similarly, Condo sees drawing as the “most important thing that an artist should do or could do. Almost more important than the final paintings.”
Entrance to the Mind showcases 28 drawings spanning the past 40 years of Condo’s career. The exhibition will be on view in New York until May 14.
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The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10016
