George Condo Feature

George Condo Untitled, 1985 Oil on canvas 13 x 10 in 33.02 x 25.40 cm

George Condo Untitled, 1985

Painted during the early years of his involvement in New York’s East Village art scene, Condo’s Untitled exemplifies his interest in creating a hybrid sensibility, where references to Old Master paintings are blended with contemporary images.

Describing his approach as “psychological Cubism”, Condo was motivated by his own deep-seated desire to internalize the fundamental principles behind the works of artists that he held in high esteem. Stating that “The only way for me to feel the difference between every other artist and me is to use every artist to become me”, Condo re-worked these influences into portraits that visually oscillate between the old and the new. Untitled is a portrait that would strike one as belonging to a different era; here, the figure dons a hat and suit that evoke another time. By incorporating these styles in contemporary painting, this work serves as an example of the humor, pastiche, and theatricality that are the hallmarks of Condo’s work. In this way, Untitled expresses Condo’s imaginative interpretation of the human figure.

George Condo Study for Incomprehensible Dream I, 2003 Pencil on paper 12 5/8h x 9 1/2w in 32.07h x 24.13w cm

George Condo Study for Incomprehensible Dream I, 2003

Study for Incomprehensible Dream I (2003) was exhibited in the Salzburg Museum der Moderne’s survey exhibition of the artist’s career, entitled “One Hundred Women”, in 2005.

Women feature heavily in many of Condo’s works; here, the woman sits in center-stage, seemingly in the grip-like embrace of an unknown, hidden figure behind her. The enigmatic subject matter is heightened by Condo’s use of chiaroscuro; curator Ralph Rugoff writes that “in a number of pictures, amorphously defined background areas of darkness or light seem to define or respond to a figure’s psychic orientation”. This drawing exemplifies this approach in Condo’s work; by paying particular attention to shading particular parts of the figure, the woman becomes the centerpiece through which a sense of mystery, foreboding, or even menace is promulgated.

George Condo Nude with Towel, 2007 Pencil on paper 12 x 22 1/2 in 30.48 x 57.15 cm

George Condo Nude with Towel, 2007

Nude with Towel (2007) depicts a kneeling woman with a necklace around her throat, her hands clasping a towel that winds around her calf. Wide-eyed, the woman’s gaze is directed towards the viewer. The image underscores the centrality of the figure to Condo’s practice; the nude’s pose, gaze, and accompanying props all hint at a stage-like setting that demonstrates the themes of artifice and theatricality that underpin his practice. Condo reserves the most detail for the nude’s face, highlighting her beauty, expression, and the slight tilt of her head. The work marvelously emphasizes the artist’s ability to spark our imagination through his own unique visual vocabulary, leaving us to imagine the story the story that is being told through the figure of the nude.

A prolific painter known for his distinctive portraits, George Condo reportedly remarked, “Drawing is visual thinking... What do you do for the whole day, wait for the paint to dry?” Over the course of his three decade career, Condo has produced a significant body of drawings that accompany his celebrated oil paintings. Scholar and writer Margrit Brehm noted that the artist himself attributed great importance to his drawings, which serve as an alternative window into his practice, and reveal developments in subject matter, composition, and form. According to Brehm, they represent a “pictorial cosmos which is more diverse and subversive than the paintings would have us assume.”

George Condo Constructed Female Figure, 1989 Oil on canvas 50h x 40w in 127h x 101.60w cm

George Condo Constructed Female Figure, 1989

Against an expansive green background, a towering figure made up of various shapes and hues, stands tall and imposing.

Constructed Female Figure (1989) exemplifies Condo’s “imaginary portraiture”, where human-like characters carry “ambiguous pictorial identities” and remain intriguingly enigmatic. The title of the work and the amorphous outline of arms, legs, body and head offer viewers with limited clues as to what they may be looking at. Neither object nor human, the obscure figure portrayed in this work evokes one of Condo’s trademark; described by the artist as complex, diverse psychological beings mirroring the absurdity of ordinary life. Painted in 1989, the piece displayed here emphasizes the artist’s central theme of imaginative portraiture explored in the 1980s. The deep colors, confident execution, and obscure subject material give Constructed Female Figure a picturesque and attractive quality.