Hauser & Wirth opens an online exhibition on the psychological effects of social distancing

Hauser & Wirth opens the online exhibition George Condo on Friday, April 3, 2020. Drawings for distanced figures. A new body of drawings made by George Condo (Concord, New Hampshire, 1957) during the past three weeks in his New York studio will then be on view on hauserwirth.com, starting on that date: these are works related to his most recent series of Distanced Figures paintings that evoke the experience of restrictive measures aimed at physical distancing during this time of the Covid-19 health emergency.

Pastel, pencil, and ink drawings depicting figures layered on top of each other, combining multiple points of view to reflect the different emotions experienced simultaneously, such as fear, paranoia, claustrophobia, panic, and anxiety. However, they try to provide a remedy through beauty and elegance. Condo describes these figures as “distanced from each other, but also distanced from themselves.”

As in previous works, Condo’s Distanced Figures synthesize through pictorial languages various psychological states. The themes addressed in the new series of drawings not only respond to a current situation and theabsence of human contact, but are also a continuation of the artist’s recurring themes. In these latest drawings, the figures often appear in pairs, linked by intersecting lines, but their points of view are not connected.

For Condo, the condition of isolation has brought positive aspects of intimacy to his studio. “I love drawing and in a usual context of privacy one is not led to think of terms like isolation or forced separation, rather the studio becomes a space where one can create without being watched.”
The drawings belonging to this exhibition provide unique insights into the cathartic experience of making art in a time of lockdown.

Hauser & Wirth will donate 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the works displayed in the online exhibition to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization. The donation is part of #artforbetter, the initiative Hauser & Wirth is participating in to support the health emergency.

Pictured is George Condo, Linear Contact (2020)
© George Condo. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

Hauser & Wirth opens an online exhibition on the psychological effects of social distancing

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