George Condo

Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Zurich, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, George Condo: New Works, 2007
Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillot, George Condo: The Lost Civilization, 2009, p. 122, illustrated in colour
New York, New Museum; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; London, Hayward Gallery; Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, George Condo: Mental States, 2011-12, n.p., illustrated in colour

Please note that this work has been requested for the upcoming exhibition Picasso et l'Art Contemporain at The Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Grand Palais, the Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou and the Musée National Picasso). It will be presented at the Grand Palais in Paris from 7 October 2015 to 29 February 2016. This exhibition is curated by Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of MNAM - Centre Pompidou, in collaboration with Diana Widmaier-Picasso, art historian, and Emilie Bouvard, curator at the Paris Picasso Museum.

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although there are brighter pink highlights in the figure's skin tone in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Nude on Purple features one of George Condo’s signature lone female figures with a purple background, cloaked in subdued lighting and smooth surfaces. The female face unveils a rudimentary subconscious, as if from a theatre or vaudeville show with the blanket of a purple curtain as the backdrop. Vacillating between provocation and pathos, the portrait perfectly encapsulates Condo’s wish to work in a figurative way “that doesn’t end up looking like some boring realism” where “the point is not to see how well somebody paints a figure, but something beyond” (George Condo in conversation with Thomas Keller, George Condo: One Hundred Women, Ostfildern 2005 p. 32).

In Condo’s portraits the characters break down and collapse, revealing their inner most fears and desires, much like the portraits of Francis Bacon. As Alexandra Koroxenidis describes in the exhibition catalogue for Over the Limit, Condo’s portraits “touch upon existential matters, but, at the same time, treat man as part of a broader reality, trampling upon contemporary social issues” (Alexandra Koroxenidis in: Exhibition Catalogue, Athens, Portolakis Collection, Over the Limit, 2005, p. 3). His paintings not only question the judgement of a person’s identity by appearances, but also the claim of portraiture to render a likeness of the subject’s identity. In this way the pictorial inventions of George Condo have made him one of the most inventive painters of his generation and one whose work has become increasingly influential.

Born in Concord, New Hampshire, George Condo has occupied a prominent position in the art world for close to three decades. His work can be characterised as both figurative and abstract, as it explores the complex ways in which these two approaches overlap. Condo’s world is populated by mysterious creatures and fanciful characters, often appearing in the centre of the canvas, peering at the viewer cautiously. This is exemplified in his painting Nude on Purple from 2007, which formed part of his much celebrated retrospective, George Condo: Mental States, at the Hayward Gallery in London from 2011-2012. Nude on Purple is a prime example of Condo’s ongoing examination of what he calls ‘psychological cubism’, which blends the beautiful with the grotesque and seriousness with absurdity to explore concepts of identity, psychology and emotions.