George Condo

Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich
Private Collection

Paris, Galerie Catherine Houard, Le Sourire de Condo, 2013
Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillol, George Condo: La Civilisation Perdue, 2009, p. 94, illustrated in colour

Damien Sausset, 'Les Clins d'Œil de Condo à la Galerie Catherine Houard', Le Quotidien de l'Art, Número 266, 23 November 2012, n.p., illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the greens are brighter in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Examination under ultraviolet light shows fluorescence on the clown's left shoulder which does not appear to be restoration.
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„I wanted to do with Old Masters what Warhol had done with American consumer goods“ (George Condo in conversation with Ben Lewis, ‘Können vor Lachen’, Monopol, February 2009, pp. 30-42) .

A virtuoso of painting, Condo achieves a delicate mixture of art historical references which are playfully intertwined with his own powerful imaginary repertoire. Pierrot Lunaire masterly represents Condo’s artistic career, including elements from his more abstract works such as the powerful blackness of the sky up to his famous group paintings with recurring characters and subjects. Simultaneously, the work illustrates a variety of art historical references that span from Old Masters such as Velázquez to modern visionaries of the likes of Picasso up to the popular language of contemporary imagery and comic books. Instead of merely copying or quoting these styles, Condo appropriates and internalizes a variety of pictorial languages to create a new, contemporary vision of painting. “I love the idea of two incompatible worlds brought together – opposing forces harmonically melded” (George Condo quoted in: Diane Solway, ‘Musings On A Muse’, W Magazine, January 2013, online resource). 

At the centre of this important work, Condo depicts the famous stock character Pierrot from the Commedia dell’Arte. Lusting for the love of Columbine, who breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin, the character of Pierrot is full of a rich history of symbolism and interpretations, ranging from a sad fool to an idealistic figure of postmodern society. Throughout art history, the subject of Pierrot and Harlequin has prominently been addressed by the leading painters of their epoch. In Pierrot Lunaire, Condo reveals his own personal reading of the subject while also incorporating all of his artistic predecessors. Characteristic for Condo’s works, personal and art historical, subjective and objective, inside and outside are inseparably interwoven. Captivating in size, Pierrot Lunaire combines idiosyncratic features of Condo’s style such as the grinning faces, a highly disruptive environment or a carrot going through the head of a person. The love-making couple at the right of the canvas is a recurring motif in Condo’s works of that period. In the context of this painting the couple is most likely associated with the figures of Columbine and Harlequin. Behind the bush appears a figure with bold forehead, wide-opened eyes, puckered brows, ellipsoidal nose and open mouth, which bears a striking resemblance to yet another recurrent character in Condo’s works, namely Rodrigo the Butler. His voyeuristic position at the back complements the triangular form of the figures in this painting, referencing the classic image composition of medieval and Old Master paintings. “Essentially what I am painting is the state in which the image-time of one reality superimposed in a field of another simultaneous presence now becomes a new conjunctive hyper-reality or hybrid image showing the simultaneous presences” (George Condo in conversation with Ralph Rugoff, ‘The Enigma of Jean Louis’, George Condo: Existential Portraits, Berlin 2006, pp. 7-13).