Viewing Room | George Condo. Selected works

The fascinating characters inhabiting George Condo's paintings always evoke intense emotions in viewers. Frequently gazing directly at the audience, they seem prepared to initiate a close and charged conversation, while the viewer becomes the observed, studied as deeply as the figures positioned on the alternate plane of reality. These 'hallucinatory beings' provoke, startle, allure, and entertain with their distorted, contorted visages and forms. Whether humorous or unsettling, tempting or exposed, they exist 'at the extreme height of whatever moment they're in,' captivating the public with their absurd and unconventional appearances, featuring exaggerated and often grotesque traits. Reflecting the full spectrum of human emotions, as the artist himself suggests, 'they can embody the despair, the heartache, the love, and the happiness of any of us', bringing the viewer in touch with a psychological exploration of human nature.

"Some evoke a theatrical quality that can be comedic or scary. You have the power as a viewer to expose any one of these characters at any moment, which creates a vulnerable atmosphere to the painting."

 

– George Condo

"Picasso painted a violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same with psychological states. Four of them can occur simultaneously. Like glimpsing a bus with one passenger howling over a joke they're hearing down the phone, someone else asleep, someone else crying – I'll put them all in one face."

 

– George Condo

One of the most iconic examples from Condo's notable 'Existential Portraits' series, and a prototype of his celebrated Cubist Paintings – the 'Smiling Face' is an expansive painting that highlights Condo's profound exploration into the realm of psychological portrait. Through an inventive amalgamation of his trademark psychological cubism and artificial realism, Condo pushes beyond the conventional boundaries of portraiture. Set against an isolated background, constructed from the colorful cubistic forms the figure is an obvious combination of female and male features. The blend of artist's two best-known techniques rendered in unabashed bold colors with unwavering lines ultimately results in a portrait that triggers a viewer's emotions through its contradictory nature.

"Often one eye is looking at you and the other eye is more recessive. You're seduced by the willing eye and then stared at by the aggressive one. As you move into the portrait there is something paranoiac about each part."

 

– George Condo 

Condo's work incorporates key elements from the artistic predecessors. The intense, sexualized gaze could be a reference to Monet's 'Olympia'. From 'Sleeping Venus' by Giorgione, he draws the celebration of sensuality and fertility. However, beneath the surface of 'Cave Painting', there flows a primal, almost menacing current, expressing a carnal, instinctual craving and animalistic desire. At the heart of the canvas is a small, conspicuous detail that demands attention—a carrot, playfully and perilously suspended above the character's visage as a symbol of misleading expectations. 

"I painted a number of paintings representing the carrot. It's a metaphor of false hope, the carrot is dangling in front of you, like the dagger in Hamlet."

 

– George Condo 

'Orgy Composition'  is a daring blend of the sensual painting of the European and American masters, the aesthetics of Pablo Picasso's 'Les Maidens d'Avignon', Francis Bacon's 'Etudes of the Human Body', and Willem De Kooning's female images, with references to kitsch and popular American culture, including Playboy magazine. Commenting on contemporary life, it's hypocrisy and 'madness of everyday' it reveals the inner space usually masked by fancy, respectable façades, a private life and hidden thoughts and desires. 'Orgy Composition' delves into the realm of human expression with a fearless embrace of diverse artistic influences, emerging as a thought-provoking commentary on contemporary existence.

"In Condo's universe, however, sex is imagined less as a victory over abstinence than as a confirmation of necessity of connection with other people, however crude."

– Jennifer Higgie, Frieze