Jesters

On the occasion of the new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto
George Condo
January 28, 2013 – May 11, 2013

Tied to the Met’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, set in 1960s Las Vegas, George Condo’s Jesters included nine original ink-on-paper drawings of jesters, created for the exhibition. After participating in previous group exhibitions and creating original banners for the Met façade, Jesters marked Condo’s first solo show at Gallery Met. “I’ve been painting clowns since 1985—my favorite archetypal American hero-loser,” Condo said of the works. “The jester has to entertain you and at the same time repel you. He has a multiplicity of qualities, and I thought that would give me a great opportunity to work with different planes that recede and come forward architecturally, like the planes and perspectives within a single portrait.”