542 West 22nd St: Jack Whitten and George Condo

Booking here guarantees an appointment to visit 542 West 22nd St and is not valid at our other locations. Walk-ins to our location next door will be let in based on availability.

To ensure a positive and safe experience, we’ve made changes to the gallery’s guidelines in accordance with New York State mandates.

These updates include timed and guided visiting appointments to manage visitor flow, face masks available at entry, hand sanitizer stations, and digitized materials you can access on your smartphone.

Appointment Days and Hours:

10:00 am – 6 pm, Tuesday – Saturday

We ask that you read the following guidelines prior to your visit:

• Please book one ticket per person

• Arrive within 10 minutes of your booking and do not bring any additional guests that have not also booked in advance

• All visitors must wear a protective face covering while visiting the gallery

• If you're more than 15 minutes late, we may not be able to guarantee you entry. Entry will be at the discretion of staff based on mandated site capacity

• Children must always be supervised by an adult

• Service dogs are allowed in the gallery, but must be checked-in with staff

• Please follow social distancing and government guidelines at all times

• Note that we cannot take responsibility for accidents or personal injuries sustained while at Hauser & Wirth New York

• The following facilities are temporarily closed to the public: Restrooms

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About the shows

'Jack Whitten. I AM THE OBJECT'

On the first floor are rarely seen works made by Jack Whitten in the years from 1991 and 2000, a period of intense experimentation during which he strove to channel and translate the effects of tumultuous world events. Blurring the boundaries between sculpture and painting, the multidimensional works on view combine geometric abstraction and found objects to mine spiritual and metaphysical thematic veins.

Among works on view are examples from Whitten’s Totem and Mask series of paintings, powerful elegiac works inspired by contemporary events that held deep significance for the artist. These commemorative works reveal Whitten’s ongoing fascination with African sculpture and his use of unconventional materials – acrylic, recycled glass, plywood and eggshells – in intricate, mosaic-like compositions.

'George Condo. Internal Riot'

‘Internal Riot’ is an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by George Condo. Made during the quarantine period, these works reflect the unsettling experience of physical distance and the absence of human contact during this prolonged time of social isolation. The pandemic has forced Condo to take his portraiture practice to a new level, with invented characters captured in an abstract web that reveals the humanity inherent in their fractured psychological states.

In this new body of work, Condo’s figures grapple with the overwhelming uncertainty and dissonant emotions that are being felt across the globe. The portraits reflect a range of emotions occurring simultaneously within us. The subjects depicted are devoid of connection to one another in a state where, according to the artist, ‘we are dealing with opposing forces and the elasticity of time.’

Earlier this spring Hauser & Wirth presented the online exhibition ‘Drawings for Distanced Figures.’ This new body of work which forms ‘Internal Riot’ continues to provide a powerful commentary on the divisive world we live in today.

Images

Left: Jack Whitten, Memory Sites, 1995. © Jack Whitten Estate. Photo: Dan Bradica.

Right: George Condo, Internal Riot, 2020. © George Condo. Photo: Thomas Barratt.