In Linear Expression George Condo's imaginary portraits invoke the kaleidoscopic range of human emotion by using quick, calculated gestures, which are then overlaid with rich tonalities and brushwork.

In particular, these new works display his virtuosic and varied use of line to delineate the mysterious, symbolic figures that have populated his works for more than four decades. Abstracted characters hold space together but rarely connect through eye contact or touch—a reflection, perhaps, of the past year of uncertainty and distance. Condo links them, instead, through his complex matrix of lines and gestures.

Linear Expression also includes a number of drawings—a medium that has always been crucial to the artist’s way of working, and whose intimacy allows the flair and diversity of Condo's draftsmanship to come to the fore. On the one hand are works with open, airy networks of wax crayon lines in cool hues, as in The Unexpected Guest (2020) and Seated Drinkers (2020), which coalesce in groups of figures who gaze across the page or directly toward the viewer. On the other hand, the buildup of inked strokes, colorful facets, and differing methods of mark-making in Scrambled Heads (2021) exudes a layered, cacophonous intensity.

"Linear expression is how I see the world . . . but in a nonlinear way outside of painting and drawing. It's not a linear world . . . it's a mixed up chronology of things that either will happen in the future, are happening in the present and perhaps have happened in the past. The exhibition focuses on making no real distinction between lines on paper or those on canvas. Just like there is no real distinction between the past, present and future. The reason I used the word expression is because art is how I express my feelings about humanity in our time. I cannot predict what will happen in the past nor can I predict the future. I can only reflect upon the moment the expression of lines are going down on either paper or canvas." –George Condo