George Condo

Caratsch de Pury & Luxembourg, Zürich

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Gala. 5 Sammler Zeigen Ihre Favoriten, 2009, p. 11, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is a tiny speck of loss on the lower left corner. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Since he burst onto the New York art scene at the beginning of the 1980s, George Condo has continued to produce paintings that challenge and re-define the conventional notion of figurative portraiture. By turns both bitingly satirical and curiously poignant, Condo’s portraits present a singularly apposite commentary on contemporary society through their instantly recognisable distortions and geometric additions. Appropriating regular working stereotypes - stockbrokers, secretaries and janitors amongst others - Condo re-interprets these bastions of normality in his own distinctive style, confronting the viewer with unexpected juxtapositions and unconventional narrative possibilities. Despite their quasi-grotesque alterations of form, Ralph Rugoff notes that Condo also imbues his characters with a sense of ineffable pathos: “Unlike in caricature… the preposterous features of these figures are in fact rendered with great sympathy. Drawing on the traditional rhetoric of portraiture, Condo imbues his invented subjects with a compelling psychological presence” (Ralph Rugoff, ‘The Mental States of America,’ in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Hayward Gallery, George Condo: Mental States, 2011-2012, p. 16).

Condo’s works are endowed with surreal possibilities: ostensibly depictions of everyday characters, the artist renders the familiar fantastical through his painting, whilst providing a mocking commentary on the commercialism and consumerism present within certain aspects of American society in the Twenty-first Century. The K-Mart Girl combines Condo’s trademark distortions of the human form with his interest in depicting regular, seemingly anonymous, working ‘types.’ The subject bares her teeth in a crooked grin beneath a bulbous nose, whilst her hugely exaggerated eyes and ears lend a comedic element to the portrait.  The signature red and white stripes of her uniform, representing the instantly recognisable K-Mart colours, are the only clues to the sitter’s profession and identity. Condo’s choice is significant: in its celebration of mass-market goods and emphasis on bargain prices, 'K-Mart' - a company founded in 1962 that is now the third largest discount store in the world - can arguably be seen as one of the ultimate examples of an American consumerist ethos.

Within The K-Mart Girl, Condo explores the conventions of historical portraiture whilst providing a re-interpretation of traditional imagery, providing an indication of the extent to which earlier artistic masterpieces have acted as sources of inspiration for his work. The monochromatic palette of the background ensures that out attention is focused solely on the subject, inviting associations with Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century society portraiture. Yet it is to the Twentieth Century that Condo has looked most frequently for sources of artistic influence, in particular to a titan of painterly practice and innovation: Pablo Picasso. The influence of Picasso’s spatial distortions, in particular those of his early Cubist paintings, can be seen in Condo’s own investigations into the possibilities of geometrical forms and re-invention of facial features. Rugoff argues that, although Condo is intensely aware of a wide variety of art historical precedents, it is Picasso whose work has been an abiding influence: “He uses the language of modernist abstraction like a palette: Matisse, Klee, Tanguy, Gorky, de Kooning, Pollock and Picasso - always Picasso, whose vocabulary is the basis of all others… Condo has inculcated the essence of Picasso and is interpreting that essence for a more contemporary time” (Ibid., pp. 24 – 28). The K-Mart Girl reveals this homage to Picasso in the slanting contours of her face and the strangely twisting smile, endowing the sitter with an enigmatic presence. The result is a work of curious power that superbly encapsulates the elegant mixture of humour and humanity that exists within Condo’s painting.