In the Studio with George Condo

Next Wednesday, New York’s New Museum opens “George Condo: Mental States,” a heavy-on-the-portraits mid-career survey that will span two gallery floors and more than 80 paintings. “Visitors are more likely to notice their modern edge than the techniques he used to produce them,” notes Calvin Tomkins, whose fascinating profile of Condo appears in the January 17 issue of The New Yorker. Among the first orders of business for Tomkins is a visit to the rented Manhattan townhouse that Condo uses as a studio.