“For Condo, things would appear to exist in terms of line, colour and form, life itself is form - form on the throes of ceaseless change, expansion, entanglement- form enamoured of its attendant colour-signs and subtly flowing or violently contrasting colour-textures… Rhythms interweave and join forces, successive dislocations and variations of colour define a chromatic ambience, forms expand and are controlled in the dynamism of the structural organisation.”
P resenting an enigmatic tableau of decadence and betrayal, the sinewy mass of Inside the West Wing from 2017 dances with George Condo’s frenetic, textural energy. Drawing and painting a dizzying assemblage of forms and figures that collide and fragment, the viewer catches glimpses of recognisable human features; an arm, teeth, curvaceous hips and legs, delicate hands which emerge from the captivating chaos only to be subsumed again beneath the mass of quivering bodies. Telling a story of debauchery, the present work presents fragile hands holding a bottle, searching, solitary eyes and Condo’s characteristic open-mouthed and toothy whispering grins. Capturing many different states within one compositional frame, Inside the West Wing feels almost like a visual puzzle, the moment one picks out a form, it slips back into the delirium of the whole. A captivating large-scale composition in acrylic and graphite on linen, the rich textures of Inside the West Wing embody Condo’s knife-edge dance between the enticing and the grotesque, sanctifying his place as one of the leading painters of his generation.
“The most consistent thing in my work is this idea of humanity. Of finding a way to represent the human consciousness in the representation through a portrait. That portrait could represent not only the exterior appearance of that person, but what’s going through their mind and what emotional states could be happening to them and within them.”
喬治・康多在工作室。Jake Naughton攝
Exhibited as part of Condo’s first solo exhibition with Almine Rech Gallery in Paris in 2017, Inside the West Wing depicts a network of deceptive activities and dangerous liaisons. This exhibition’s title of “Life is Worth Living” was taken from an old note Condo once sent to his long-t.mes friend Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, a sent.mes nt felt in Condo’s carnivalesque compositions. Exploring the reactionary quality of great art like Picasso’s Guernica and Andy Warhol’s Race Riot, Condo’s work from this exhibition (Collusion, The Trial, The Investigation, along with the present work) are a response to the political atmosphere of our contemporary world. Not just a political caricature, Inside the West Wing is Shakespearean in its theatrical portrayal of deception and misinformation at the heart of political life. Seeing art as the only constant in an ever-shifting landscape, Condo declared “art is the truth and everything else is a lie” (the artist, quoted in “Interview: GEORGE CONDO - Life is Worth Living”, Our Choices Art, online).
巴布羅・畢加索，《亞維農的少女》，1907年作 © 2023 ESTATE OF PABLO PICASSO ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS)，紐約
IMAGE: © SCALA, FLORENCE, courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali e del Turismo
桑德羅・波提且利，《春》，約1480年作
圖片︰© SCALA，佛羅倫斯，鳴謝︰Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali e del Turismo
Exemplifying the artist’s use of drawing and painting together in a structurally destructive method of working, Inside the West Wing is a passionately charged example of Condo’s uniquely disconcerting techniques and exploration of the human psyche. Carrying the Cubistic quality of Picasso’s work of the 1930s applied to psychology more interpersonal rather than singular, Condo expands his compositions from an initial point, whether it be a face a limb or an expression, before moving outwards in large, gestural swathes of inky-black colour. There’s a performative element to Condo’s practice, his expressive moments at points slow, before speeding up to reach their crescendo. The particularly animate cluster of shapes in the upper right-hand corner explode outwards into the billowing and luscious curves of other bodies. There is an innate tempo and rhythmic quality to Condo’s work, a musicality informed by his study of Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts. Translating the composition of music onto the canvas, Condo adopts the approach of a composer, with periods of thrilling hyper-activity within the picture frame being expertly balanced by moments of quiet.
Bringing together elements of beauty and the macabre, Condo’s “figures can be seductive and repulsive at the same t.mes . They embody a position that is simultaneously frightening and appealing. This is something that also comes across in the way they solicit different kinds of looks from the viewer, and how they often look back at us with eyes that don’t match or don’t even seem to belong to the same face” (Ralph Rugoff, George Condo: Existential Portraits, New York 2006, p. 8-9). Existing in the intoxicating liminal space between the figurative and the abstract, Inside the West Wing takes on a hybrid state that has a been central to Condo’s oeuvre since the major works Diaries of Milan (1984) and Dancing to Miles (1985), both in the collects ion of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A symphony of moments of fascinating chaos and intoxicating, visceral suggestion, Inside the West Wing is a triumphant example of Condo’s highly experiential oeuvre.
George Condo - Life is Worth Living from We Are Our Choices on Vimeo.
Video of the artist and the present work, installed at Almine Rech, Paris, George Condo Life is Worth Living, October - November 2017.
George Condo, Inside the West Wing, 2017
© 2023 George Condo / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
「對康多來說，事物似乎會通過線條、顏色和形式存在，生命本身就是形式——形式在不斷變化、擴張和糾纏的陣痛中——形式迷戀它生而有之的顔色標誌，迷戀它暗暗流動或對比强烈的色彩紋理......節奏互相交織和匯流，連續的錯位和顏色的變化界定了色彩氛圍，形式擴展並在結構組織的活力中得到控制。」
《西 翼内幕》作於2017年，呈現了一個充滿墮落和背叛場景的神秘圖景，畫中佈滿充滿肌肉感的肢體，與喬治·康多極度狂熱而質感突出的能量一同共舞。畫中描繪了各種形態和人物的集合體，彼此碰撞、碎裂，令人眼花繚亂，觀衆掃視畫面，可以認出一些人類特徵：一根胳膊、牙齒、曲線動人的臀與腿，纖細的手從一片魅惑的亂象中浮現，卻又淹沒於一團團顫抖的身體中。此畫充滿浪蕩不羈的故事，有脆弱的手拿著瓶子、有孤獨的眼睛帶著追尋的目光，還有康多筆下齜牙咧嘴的標誌性笑臉。《西翼内幕》猶如一副繁雜的視覺拼圖，構圖中呈現了千姿百態的人物，一種被人認出的形態忽然冒出，卻又瞬間滑回整體的欣狂中。《西翼内幕》以丙烯和石墨筆繪於亞麻布上，尺幅非常奪目，豐富的肌理展現了一場驚險未卜的舞蹈，意味深長，介乎於誘人和怪誕之間，展現這位當代傑出畫家出神入化的造詣。
「我作品中最一致的就是這種對人性的看法。找到一種方法，通過肖像的表現形式去呈現人類意識。這幅肖像不僅可以代表那個人的外表，還可以代表他們腦海中的想法以及他們的情緒狀態——可能發生的或者是内心潛在的。」
《西翼内幕》是康多2017年在巴黎阿爾敏·萊希畫廊首次個展中的作品，描繪了一個關於欺詐活動和危險關係的網絡。當時展覽的標題「人生值得過」取自於康多給他老朋友伯納德·魯伊斯·畢加索的一張舊便條，這種情緒在康多充滿節慶狂喜的作品中可以感受到。康多探索了畢加索《格爾尼卡》和安迪・沃荷《種族暴動》等偉大傑作中的反動性，通過那次展覽中的作品（《勾結》、《審判》、《調查》以及目前此作），他對當今世界政治氛圍作出回應。《西翼内幕》不僅僅是一幅政治漫畫，更是一個莎士比亞式的戲劇性描繪，描繪了作爲政治生活核心的欺騙行爲和假消息。世事不斷變遷，而康多將藝術視為其中唯一不變的事物，他宣稱「藝術是真理，其他的一切都是謊言」（引述藝術家，錄於<採訪：喬治·康多 —人生值得過>，《Our Choices Art》，網上）。
《西翼内幕》體現了藝術家具有破壞性結構的創作方法，他同時使用素描和繪畫兩種畫法，激情滿瀉地展現令人不安的獨特技巧和對人類心理的探索。畢加索1930年代的立體主義作品被應用於心理學，更多關於人際關係，而非單一個體，康多同樣具有這一立體主義特質，他往往從畫面的一處開始構建作品，無論是一張臉、一條肢體還是一個表情，然後再向外移動，揮筆塗上一片片墨黑色。康多的創作實踐中帶有表演色彩，他充滿表現力，不時緩慢進展，然後突然加速到高潮。此作右上角的畫面顯得尤其躁動活躍，各種形狀簇擁成一團，然後向外炸出來，進入一片翻滾不止的妖嬈曲綫中。康多的作品有一種内在的節奏感和韻律感，這種音樂性得益於他在馬薩諸塞大學對音樂理論的研究。康多借用了作曲家的方法，將音樂創作轉化到畫布上，他在畫框之中譜寫安靜的片刻，巧妙地與高度活躍、激奮人心的章節互相協調。
康多的人物融合了美麗與恐怖的元素，「人物誘人的同時又讓人生厭。他們帶有一種既嚇人、又迷人的立場。這一點也體現在，人物從觀眾那裡募集各式各樣的神色，還有他們經常以不匹配甚至是不屬於同一副容貌的眼神來回望我們」（拉爾夫·魯戈夫，<喬治·康多：存在主義肖像>，紐約 2006 年，頁8-9）。《西翼内幕》在具象和抽象之間醉人的極限空間中存在，呈現出一種混合狀態，這是康多作品的核心，這個核心從他的主要作品《米蘭日記》（1984年）、《跟著邁爾斯起舞》（1985年）以及其後的創作中可以體現出來，而這兩幅作品均屬紐約現代藝術博物館收藏。《西翼内幕》猶如一曲交響樂，當中演繹了令人着迷的混亂樂章，蘊含著讓人入神的内心暗示。康多的創作凝聚了極緻的體驗，此作無疑是當中的傑出典範。