A major retrospective exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris showcases forty years of prolific creation by American contemporary artist George Condo, featuring his signature fragmented figures, distorted portraits, and bold color experiments. The comprehensive show reveals Condo's universe as both chaotic and sophisticated, exploring the troubled zones between abstraction and figuration, humor and unease, elegance and chaos.
The exhibition presents a striking dive into the world of this essential artist through monumental canvases, "recomposed" portraits, and hybrid characters. Condo, a major figure in American contemporary art, is known as a painter of metamorphoses and dislocated faces who challenges conventional artistic boundaries with his distinctive visual language.
Two prominent art critics offered contrasting perspectives on the exhibition's presentation and impact. Stéphane Corréard, editorialist at Journal des Arts, described Condo as "an artistic ogre who devours centuries of European painting with typically American energy, somewhere between Warhol and Basquiat." However, Corréard criticized the exhibition as "superlative but incomplete and linear," noting that it obscures the erotic, political, and rebellious dimensions of Condo's work.
Corréard further explained that the exhibition's mixture of chronological and thematic organization makes it difficult to perceive the evolution of Condo's work. While he praised the drawings and engravings spanning from the artist's childhood at age four to the present day, revealing his "furious madness," he lamented the absence of many emblematic series, including the censored album cover for Kanye West. "Despite the art market's attempts to turn him into a product, Condo remains an indomitable artist and seems to be unlocking himself today - that promises to be interesting," Corréard concluded.
Corinne Rondeau, lecturer in aesthetics and art sciences at the University of Nîmes and art critic, offered a different perspective on the artist's work. She described Condo as "a borderline, explosive, and polymorphic painter who is simultaneously comic, terrifying, and deeply thoughtful." Rondeau was particularly struck by his early black canvases, large final abstractions, and bronze sculptures featuring cubist, bulging, deformed faces where "the jaw chews upward," creating the impression of seeing inside the head itself.
Rondeau criticized the exhibition's overly organized approach, arguing that it attempts to categorize Condo's work and ends up suggesting he is an imitator. In contrast, she emphasized that Condo champions "fake European painting," playing with art history to create something personal and off-kilter. "Condo represents total freedom: no censorship, controlled madness, and a way of painting that mixes terror, humor, and genius," she explained.
The retrospective spans over four decades of Condo's artistic development, from his earliest works to his most recent creations. Notable pieces on display include "The Cloud Maker" from 1984 and "Double Heads on Red" from 2014, demonstrating the artist's evolving style and persistent fascination with distorted human forms and psychological complexity.
The exhibition runs at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris from October 10, 2025, through February 8, 2026, offering visitors an extensive opportunity to engage with one of America's most provocative contemporary artists. Despite the critics' concerns about the curatorial approach, both acknowledged Condo's significant contribution to contemporary art and his ability to maintain artistic integrity in an increasingly commercialized art world.
