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Lot 33
George Condo(American, born 1957)The Walrus, 2005
15 May 2019, 17:00 EDT
New YorkUS$350,000 - US$550,000
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George Condo (American, born 1957)
The Walrus, 2005
incised 'CONDO 1|4 05' and stamped with the foundry mark (on the lower edge)
bronze with gold patina
26 x 13 x 24 in.
66 x 33 x 61 cm.
This work was executed in 2005, and is number one from an edition of four.
incised 'CONDO 1|4 05' and stamped with the foundry mark (on the lower edge)
bronze with gold patina
26 x 13 x 24 in.
66 x 33 x 61 cm.
This work was executed in 2005, and is number one from an edition of four.
Footnotes
Provenance
Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
New York, Skarstedt Gallery, New Sculptures, 5 May-10 June 2005, another example exhibited
New York, Luhring Augustine Gallery, George Condo: Existential Portraits, 5 May-3 June 2006, pp. 42-43, another example illustrated in color
Literature
Artificial Realism, Moscow 2008, pp. 98-99, illustrated in color
George Condo initially rose to prominence in the 1980s, alongside the dynamic East Village art scene together with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. After time spent working as a studio assistant in Andy Warhol's 'Factory', Condo emerged with his own distinct practice and visual language, which he named 'Artificial Realism'. Condo has explained this as "the realistic representation of that which is artificial" encapsulating his practice of using traditional representational methods to deconstruct figuration within painting and sculpture (the artist quoted in: Emily Nathan, 'artnet Asks: George Condo Sees Faces and Screaming Heads Everywhere', www.artnet.com, 14 October 2015).
Condo's exploration of portraiture was intrinsic to the revival of figurative painting that emerged in the 1980s, and he has continued to investigate this throughout his career through various mediums. His oeuvre draws on a rich tapestry of historical genres, traditions and movements, the most prominent being the influence of Old Master portraiture. His compositions and subject matter frequently echo antique portraits and his common use of historic figures such as butlers, cardinals and courtesans hark back to the past. Condo weaves these stories with elements of American Pop Art to create his distinctive visual language and distinguishing cast of characters within a uniquely contemporary discourse.
The Walrus, 2005, is typical of Condo's cartoon-like grotesques. Depicting only the head and neck, the sculpture takes the form of an uncanny classical bust. The elongated neck appears to grow from the ground like a root. Amidst the highly textured flesh a grinning face emerges, that is both comical and aggressively savage. A toothy grin splits the right side of the face from ear to ear, carving deep, visceral caverns along the jaw line. The face has one squinting eye while the second is distorted – the pupil terrifyingly large and unstable. At second glance, a second shrieking face appears below the larger one, emerging like a macabre embryonic twin demanding the attention of the viewer, rendered in a jarring Cubist composition. The sculpture is both ferocious and violent, while also simultaneously comical and carnivalesque, causing shock and delight in the viewer in equal measure.
The expressive elements rendered in the faces of The Walrus expose a highly psychological dialogue. The portrait is paradoxical, both smiling and screaming, creating a duality of fear and happiness, ecstasy and madness. Though the viewer recognizes this as a portrait, it is a caricature of the tradition and a macabre doppelganger of the wider human condition that it strives to represent.
George Condo's work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Tate Modern, London, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles. His work has been the subject of major retrospectives at the New Museum, New York, the Phillips Collection, Washington and the Hayward Gallery, London.
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