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Lot Essay
George Condo has long been known as an artist who does not adhere to the traditional rules of painting. His combination of contradictory visual techniques, such as figuration and abstraction, and the masterful way he investigates classical art history in a contemporary manner, allows him to create works that seem familiar, yet are filled with intrigue and raise as many questions are they answer.
Coining the term “artificial realism,” Condo is best known for his hybridization of the traditions of Old Master painting and Modernism. The result is a complex riff on centuries of tradition that incorporates elements and themes often associated with more classical styles of painting. Strikingly contemporary, the artist nonetheless peppers his works with multiple references from art history, and often pays homage to those who have influenced him such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Dubuffet and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Large Figure Composition, which was executed in 2008, serves as a prime example of how Condo uses imagery from throughout art history to create a work that is thought provoking, complicated and has a hint of familiarity within it. The languishing central figure immediately evokes the countless reclining nudes that have appeared through the history of fine art, such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino and, more recently, Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couche. Condo plays on this classic image, but disrupts the figure, contradicting the traditional idea of the beautiful reclining nude. The female form is hypersexualised with her large breasts in forefront of the composition, her slim waist and accentuated hips. Her almost grotesque nature is highlighted further through the distortions to her face and the extra set of hands that emerge from her side. In these areas, Condo appears to reference cubist techniques to display multiple perspectives at once, forcing the viewer to question what they are actually seeing and who the true figure may be.
The group of observers in the background plays with notions of the relationship between the viewed and the viewers, something that has also been referenced many times throughout art history, such as in Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas. Just as in the Spanish painting, the figures in the back of Large Figure Composition are looking primarily beyond the picture plane and directly at the viewer, thus forcing the viewer to be a part of a work instead of simply a passive observer. The work is executed over three large panels, alluding to the grand tradition of the triptych painting. Often associated with alter pieces, such as the Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) by Robert Campin, and artworks of stature and grandeur, Condo gives Large Figure Composition and the nude figure an elevated sense of importance and majesty.
Young Architect, painted in 2005, contains a separate set of art historical references. Countless Old Master and Renaissance portraits could have served as inspiration for Young Architect, the figure is seated in a traditional manner, leaning slightly off center and set against a simple backdrop. Condo applies his signature style to the portrait to create a work that is deeply rooted in tradition, yet at the same time is also very contemporary. The striking nature of the figure and the bright, vivid colors adopt the language of Pop, thus questioning the artificial boundaries often used to separate “high” and “low” art.
George Condo uses the juxtapositions of classic and contemporary, and of “high” and “low” art to question their relevance today, in the process creating works that are thought provoking and refuse to adhere to the rules set forth by academic art history. His works continually question boundaries, bring forth new ideas to traditional mediums, thus creating works which are distinctly contemporary.
Coining the term “artificial realism,” Condo is best known for his hybridization of the traditions of Old Master painting and Modernism. The result is a complex riff on centuries of tradition that incorporates elements and themes often associated with more classical styles of painting. Strikingly contemporary, the artist nonetheless peppers his works with multiple references from art history, and often pays homage to those who have influenced him such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Dubuffet and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Large Figure Composition, which was executed in 2008, serves as a prime example of how Condo uses imagery from throughout art history to create a work that is thought provoking, complicated and has a hint of familiarity within it. The languishing central figure immediately evokes the countless reclining nudes that have appeared through the history of fine art, such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino and, more recently, Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couche. Condo plays on this classic image, but disrupts the figure, contradicting the traditional idea of the beautiful reclining nude. The female form is hypersexualised with her large breasts in forefront of the composition, her slim waist and accentuated hips. Her almost grotesque nature is highlighted further through the distortions to her face and the extra set of hands that emerge from her side. In these areas, Condo appears to reference cubist techniques to display multiple perspectives at once, forcing the viewer to question what they are actually seeing and who the true figure may be.
The group of observers in the background plays with notions of the relationship between the viewed and the viewers, something that has also been referenced many times throughout art history, such as in Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas. Just as in the Spanish painting, the figures in the back of Large Figure Composition are looking primarily beyond the picture plane and directly at the viewer, thus forcing the viewer to be a part of a work instead of simply a passive observer. The work is executed over three large panels, alluding to the grand tradition of the triptych painting. Often associated with alter pieces, such as the Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) by Robert Campin, and artworks of stature and grandeur, Condo gives Large Figure Composition and the nude figure an elevated sense of importance and majesty.
Young Architect, painted in 2005, contains a separate set of art historical references. Countless Old Master and Renaissance portraits could have served as inspiration for Young Architect, the figure is seated in a traditional manner, leaning slightly off center and set against a simple backdrop. Condo applies his signature style to the portrait to create a work that is deeply rooted in tradition, yet at the same time is also very contemporary. The striking nature of the figure and the bright, vivid colors adopt the language of Pop, thus questioning the artificial boundaries often used to separate “high” and “low” art.
George Condo uses the juxtapositions of classic and contemporary, and of “high” and “low” art to question their relevance today, in the process creating works that are thought provoking and refuse to adhere to the rules set forth by academic art history. His works continually question boundaries, bring forth new ideas to traditional mediums, thus creating works which are distinctly contemporary.