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George Condo, Bindo Altoviti, and Gerry Bergstein on John Currin
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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Last fall, internationally renowned painter of utterly odd figures George Condo published a book of his work called The Imaginary Portraits of George Condo, which amazon.com introduces on-line with the frightening sentence: "Since the mid 1970s, George Condo has been painting portraits of people inhabiting his imagination." Just a quick glance at some of Condo’s recent paintings — a mouthless, bulbous-nosed guy in a Lord Nelson hat with a corked bottle for a left arm, a shapely, shiny red Cyborg’s gam for a right leg, and an eensy-weensy little red Barbie high heel on his left foot, identified as The Policeman; a bottle-headed, red-caped guy drinking champagne while riding on a wheel, this one The Insane Cardinal — will convince anybody that this is one extremely weird imagination. Condo calls his characters "antipodal beings," from a concept in Aldous Huxley’s psychedelic Heaven and Hell, and you can judge for yourself whether you’d like to be alone in his mind after seeing "George Condo: Solo Exhibition," which opens on October 15 at Harvard’s Carpenter Center. Condo, who will be teaching at Harvard’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies next spring and who also has work up in the Institute of Contemporary Art’s current "Splat Boom Pow!", plans to show six paintings at the Carpenter Center, along with several studies revealing the mysteries of his working methods. To create his compelling, clownish figures, Condo borrows techniques from all over the art-historical map (in this case that would include last summer’s "Manet/Velázquez" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York). He also draws on some heady theoretical sources, including Martin Heidegger’s Early Greek Thinking and Michael Kwakkelstein’s lectures on Leonardo da Vinci’s physiognomical studies. The resulting figures are rendered in a style that he pioneered called "Artificial Realism" — the realistic representation of the artificial — and are well worth a close look. Artist Gerry Bergstein is no stranger to strange portraits, though his paintings have been known to include not only creatures from his imagination but also the creature he sees in his mirror. This Saturday, the Museum of Fine Arts has invited him to give a gallery tour of its "John Currin Selects," which is now up in the Foster Gallery. Currin paints flamboyant, unmistakably contemporary portraits based on historical styles like Mannerism and the Baroque; this show is the result of his trawl through the MFA’s galleries and storage areas. Bergstein, with his quick wit, keen eye, and knowledge of both art history and the MFA’s holdings, should be an interesting guide. Europe has had a long tradition of wealthy individuals who act as patrons to the arts, and in her day, Isabella Stewart Gardner upheld that tradition with style and grace. In tribute to her legacy, the Gardner Museum is presenting "Raphael, Cellini, and a Renaissance Banker: The Patronage of Bindo Altoviti." Opening this Wednesday, it will explore the activities of an important Renaissance banker and influential collector of fine Renaissance paintings, sculptures, and drawings, some of which will be on view. "George Condo: Solo Exhibition" is at Harvard University’s Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, October 15 through November 16, with an opening reception on October 15 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.; call (617) 495-5666. Gerry Bergstein gives a free gallery talk on the exhibition "John Currin Selects" at the Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, October 4 at noon; call (617) 267-9300. "Raphael, Cellini, and a Renaissance Banker: The Patronage of Bindo Altoviti" is at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 the Fenway, from October 8 through January 11; call (617) 566-1401.
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