George Condo // The Hayward // London

I'm not a big fan of George Condo's work, though I do like his use of humour and appreciate the homage to european portraiture that his work presents to us. I also found it interesting walking round and thinking about why these portraits were lighthearted, satirical humour and a mockery rather than the profound reflections of the human condition that the work he borrows from is received as. What is it about the visual language that defines these charicatures as comic and cartoonish?

One set of work was displayed on the wall in a traditional layout of portraits in a museum, house or gallery, something like a dysfunctional family.

I suppose these paintings make you look at those historical european portraits with fresh eyes, and with more awareness of the visual language they use.