mental states.

i had plans for a while to go check out george condo’s exhibit at the new museum here in nyc (i’m not sure why they call it new, it’s really not new at all) and this saturday was finally THE day. i woke up early, excited by the beautiful weather and my high expectations of what i was about to experience. upon arriving downtown i met up with my friend mitzy as planned and we embarked on our adventure into the (not so) new museum.

we explored a couple of pretty interesting exhibits but i was set on getting my sights on condo’s work. i must say, the exhibit did not disappoint. with two entire floors of condo’s paintings and sculptures, i could not let my mind rest and barely knew where to start! mitzy and i shared some great observations and got into some pretty deep discussions about condo’s work. there was an overall sense in condo’s pieces that he was allowing the viewer to step into the lives of his invented characters for a brief moment in order to understand their stories. each character’s story seemed to really develop on it’s own the longer i observed the paintings… i wish i could have taken photos inside of the gallery but photography was prohibited.

after enjoying the rooftop terrace mitzy had to leave and i went back to condo’s exhibit. i ended up spending several more hours observing his work, making correlations between the titles of the pieces after developing my own thoughts on them, and jotting down some quick notes and sketches on most of the stand outs.

i was BEYOND inspired. i think this was truly the first time i have spent such so much energy observing, interpreting and appreciating an artist’s work in a museum. it was like a delicious meal that i just couldn’t get enough of! everywhere i looked, my mind kept building stories, trying to get an idea of what condo was feeling when he created these works, and what was being portrayed.

i am really inspired by condo and i look forward to learning more about him as an artist and as a person, as well as his interpretation of people’s roles, emotions and interactions in society. he definitely seems to have a strong opinion and very interesting way of expressing his commentary on contemporary culture/society.

i also thought it was very interesting that the title of his exhibit was “mental states”. at the end of it all, i wondered if the images were what he wanted people to see, or if this is what the subjects of the paintings “thought” of “themselves”, much like a mind game of the subconscious. i truly felt like i was witnessing history, observing his work in person. to me it was like witnessing the Picasso of our time. i could not have asked for a better exhibit!

(i did manage to take one photo of my reflection inside of a small piece, the only pencil drawn work in the entire exhibit!)