On Tuesday night, New York's admirers of satirical-style oil
painting and drawing convened at the New Museum for "George
Condo: Mental States," a survey spanning 30 years. The celebrity
fan club included Marc Jacobs, lenders Lee Sobieski and Adam
Kimmel, collectors Alberto Mugrabi and Jane Rosenblum, Mary-Kate
Olsen and Richard Prince. The combination of classical painting
and pop was also a sub-theme of the show: Condo's work makes
dizzying reference to Pablo Picasso, Diego Velázquez, Looney
Tunes, Walt Disney and Arshile Gorky.  Skewered subjects include
Queen Elizabeth, depicted in The Insane Queen (2006) as having a
crazy, bulbous right eye, and everyone's favorite reformed
prostitute, Mary Magdalene (2009), whose long red hair and
pointed ears identify her as part Titian creation, part fairy
and part cartoon rodent.  "They're beautiful pictures, and
they're very tough as well. It's high and low put together, and
it's a very volatile combination," said curator Laura Hoptman,
who recently traded from the N