“I think that perception and comprehensible information based in truthful reality is what has been burned to the ground,” he says. “Answers are lit on fire like burning leaves in the wind. Nobody really has any facts.”

Never at a loss for words is George Condo. He calls his style “artificial realism” or “psychological cubism,” to give you an idea.

I keep returning to his remark that “nobody really has any facts.” The context is the viral divisiveness which is steadily gutting the American dispensation. Condo applies his wizard painting skills to the holocaust of perceptual consensus with gripping effect.

Having ditched Manhattan for the Hamptons to shelter from Covid, Condo pokes “truthful reality” in the kisser from his artful isolation. It’s as if the smithereens from serial explosions in the schism factory are landing on his picture plane. This-is-what-I-see-in-my-head contrivances confront the viewer with McEnany truculence: Look with these eyeballs, not yours.

The difference is that Condo’s disorienting figurations, modeled in loopy forms and luscious colors, are disarmingly engaging.

(Nadja Sayej, “George Condo: ‘Change can’t just be an idea or a slogan — it has to get real,’” theguardian.com, 11-6-20)

(c) 2020 JMN