George Condo Concord, MA, USA, b. 1957
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                Photo: Mr Adrian Gaut/Trunk Archive - 
            
George Condo is widely recognized as one of the most influential American artists of his generation. Renowned for his singular brand of figuration, he developed a style that fuses the elegance of classical painting with the fractured intensity of the modern psyche.
b. 1957, Concord, MA, USA
Lives and works in New York, NY, USA
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His works are populated by grotesque, exaggerated, and often comically disfigured characters — figures that reflect the absurdities, contradictions, and inner anxieties of contemporary life.
Condo studied art history and music theory at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. In the early 1980s, he worked briefly at Andy Warhol’s Factory, an experience that shaped his understanding of both American iconography and the mechanisms of the art world. In 1985, he moved to Paris, where he spent a decade immersed in the legacy of European painting before returning to New York in the mid-1990s.
“I felt I had to come back to New York with a statement that would stand up against Andy Warhol’s soup cans. And the irony was that it turned out to be Old Master painting.”
— George Condo
His engagement with the Old Masters became the foundation of his own artistic language, combining influences from Velázquez, Goya, and Rembrandt, refracted through the lens of American visual culture. Condo coined the term Artificial Realism to describe this approach — “the realistic representation of that which is artificial.”
His paintings form a bold fusion of European traditions with the aesthetics of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Francis Bacon’s Studies of the Human Body, and Willem de Kooning’s female figures, enriched by references to kitsch and American popular culture — from Playboy magazine to comics and animation. They are not conventional portraits but imagined personalities, fractured and reassembled into visual manifestations of psychological states.
The artist describes his style as psychological cubism, aiming not so much to dismantle traditional form as to convey a multiplicity of emotional and mental experiences coexisting within a single image. His characters evoke both empathy and unease; they appear familiar yet distorted. Their dual nature — at once alluring and unsettling — reflects the inner contradictions of human psychology.
Condo’s painting strikes a subtle balance between refinement and destruction. Positioned between cultural memory and the visual aggression of the present, he reimagines the portrait genre, turning the human figure into a graphic reflection of inner conflict and fragmented consciousness. What emerges in his work is not unity or narrative but the reverse side of reality — a heightened perception that exposes illusion and reveals the complex spectrum of emotional and psychological states.
Selected solo exhibitions include:
George Condo at Cycladic Museum (Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, 2018), The Way I Think (The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2017), Confrontation (Museum Berggruen, Berlin, 2016–2017), George Condo. Selections from a Private Collection (The Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, 2016), and Mental States (New Museum, New York, 2011–2012).
Condo’s works are represented in major public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), National Gallery of Art (Washington), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Tate (London), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (Paris), Städel Museum (Frankfurt), Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Oslo), Museu d’Art Contemporani (Barcelona), The Broad Art Foundation (Los Angeles), Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Judith Rothschild Foundation (Philadelphia), and Marciano Art Foundation (Los Angeles).
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        Works
George Condo Concord, MA, USA, b. 1957
Crazy Cat Combination, 1989-1990Oil, paper and charcoal on canvas342,9 x 252,1 cm
(12 panels)Further images
Crazy Cat Combination, created between 1989 and 1990, is a vibrant and playful homage to the American cartoonist George Herriman, best known for his comic strip Krazy Kat. This monumental...Crazy Cat Combination, created between 1989 and 1990, is a vibrant and playful homage to the American cartoonist George Herriman, best known for his comic strip Krazy Kat. This monumental composition brings together nine works originally conceived as individual paintings, which Condo then assembled in a manner reminiscent of classic comic book pages.
In line with his earlier series of ‘fake Old Masters’ from the early 1980s, each segment of Crazy Cat Combination is infused with allusions to various artistic styles and iconic figures, including Velázquez, Rembrandt, and Picasso. As both collector and admirer of these diverse artistic languages, Condo borrows from their stylistic signatures, adopting recognizable palettes and techniques while distorting them through his own distinctive lens.
Merging the grandeur of European traditions with the irreverence of American pop culture, Condo fearlessly blends cultural codes and values across time periods and territories. The result is a dynamic and witty tapestry that encapsulates art history’s evolution, navigating the boundaries between high art and popular imagery, with a touch of humor that reflects his irreverent approach to tradition.
Exhibitions
George Condo, Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, Apr 20–May 26, 1990.
Large-scale works by gallery artists, The Pace Gallery, 142 Greene Street, New York, Jul 16-Aug 31, 1990.
'George Condo: Recent Paintings', The Pace Gallery, 32 East 57 Street, New York, Apr 19–May 24, 1991.
'I Am the Enunciator', Thread Waxing Space, New York, Jan 9–Feb 20, 1993.
George Condo, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, Dece 3, 1994–Jan 15, 1995.
'George Condo: Mental States'. New Museum, New York (Jan 26–May 8, 2011); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (Jun 25–Sep 25, 2011); Hayward Gallery, London (Oct 18, 2011–Jan 15, 2012); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (Feb 23–May 28, 2012).Publications
George Condo. Text by Felix Guattari. Paris: Galerie Daniel Templon, 1990. pp. 25, 53.
George Condo. Art Random, Kyoto Shoin International, Co., Ltd., Kyoto, 1991, pp. 23, 30-31, 39 (details)
'George Condo: Recent Paintings'. Text by Wilfried Dickhoff. New York: The Pace Gallery, 1991: plate 7, illustrated.
'I Am the Enunciator'. Text by Christian Leigh. New York: Thread Waxing Space, 1993
The Imaginary portraits of George Condo. powerhouse Books, 2002. pp. 54, 62
'George Condo: Mental States' (exhibition catalogue), 2011. Hayward Publishing, p. 163Exhibitions- 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            Tatintsian Gallery Selected
Group Exhibition, Dubai 14 Nov - 30 Dec 2022Tatintsian Selected project opens alongside two Dubai landmark events in fall 2022 – Alserkal Art Week and Dubai Design Week.Read more >
Gallery showroom will spotlight selected works by such contemporary masters as Ron Arad, George Condo, Mat Collishaw, Evgeny Chubarov, Peter Halley, John Miller and Jenny Holzer. - 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            Naturally Naked
Group Exhibition 15 Aug - 28 Dec 2019Read more > - 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            Mutated Reality
Group Exhibition 27 Nov 2015 - 2 Mar 2016Read more > - 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            Persona Grata
Group exhibition 1 Mar - 21 Apr 2010Read more > - 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            George Condo. Artificial Realism
Personal Exhibition 15 May - 14 Aug 2008Read more > - 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            Bad Planet
Group Exhibition 15 Apr - 14 May 2008Read more > - 
                            
                            
                                    
                                        
                                    
                            
                            Create Your Own Museum
Group Exhibition 24 Jan - 1 Mar 2007Read more > 
PublicationsViewing RoomsNews- 
                                    
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                        George Condo | The Mad and the Lonely
June 18 – October 31, 2024 | Deste Foundation, Hydra, GreeceThe Mad and the Lonely will showcase small-scale paintings and sculptures from George Condo’s extensive career, focusing on society’s outcasts who oscillate between madness and loneliness. The exhibition blends influences... - 
                                    
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                        George Condo | Humanoids
March 31 – October 1, 2023 | Nouveau Musée National de MonacoIn George Condo’s own words, “the humanoid is not a science fiction monster, it is a form of representation that uses traditional means to bring out the inner emotions onto... - 
                                    
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                        George Condo | The Picture Gallery
September 26 – November 28, 2021 | Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai, ChinaLong Museum (West Bund) presents the largest solo exhibition by George Condo in Asia, ‘The Picture Gallery.’ This ambitious presentation brings together more than 200 paintings, sculptures and drawings made... 
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