The Mental States of George Condo

My work is inspired by George Condo’s democratic spirit, his humorous and simultaneously reverent attitude to art history and his subtle but effective use of it as a medium:

George Condo is the ultimate artist’s artist. He is not constrained by art history, but liberated by it, seeing it as a tool for him to use. In his paintings, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism collide with aesthetics from Looney Tunes cartoons and Mad Magazine, creating tragicomic images which appear outrage, but have the gravitas of old master paintings. In this way, Condo looks at our relationship with both contemporary culture and art history.

A major retrospective of his work is currently on at the Hayward Gallery. The main section of George Condo: Mental States for me is the wall on which his portraiture is hung. The paintings vary enormously in subject, from Jesus to a creation that Condo calls ‘Big Red’, but they are linked in their visual vocabulary. Condo borrows highlights and majestic, deep backgrounds from old master paintings to give his grotesque and contorted faces a strange dignity.

Jesus, Condo- 2002

Self-portrait, Rembrandt- 1669



Red Antipodular Agent, Condo- 2009


Some characters have been taken from other paintings and given new personas by Condo. Lady Crimp, for example, is the exaggeration of a Goya painting of a woman with a long nose, whilst The Cracked Cardinal bears a strong resemblance to Francis Bacon’s Study after Velazquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X, which itself is a manipulation of an existing image. Condo is drawn to artists like Bacon, Goya and Picasso (whose work he has recreated in Memories of Picasso) because ‘they tore things up and made them horrifying but captivating’.

Lady Crimp, Condo- 1984

The Cracked Cardinal, Condo- 2004

Study after Velazquez's Portrait, Francis Bacon- 1953

Portrait of Pope Innocent X, Diego Velazquez- 1650

Like Taryn Simon, Condo creates his own snapshot of society, hanging his portraits salon style- like the proprietor of a restaurant he is surrounded by his famous customers- and with a whole collection of other paintings entitled ‘Mania and Melancholia’. These pictures look at what is going on behind closed doors-‘all the places that are considered sacred ground’, and so we see a stockbroker with no trousers on, a couple cavorting on a chair, Batman with a bunny girl. These have often been called Condo’s most political works, but he refutes any such symbolism or comments in his work.

Batman and Bunny, Condo- 2004

There are many misconceptions about his paintings-  they have been seen not only as simplistic, refuted by the remarkable number of references to art history that can be found in them, but as overly horrific, attempts to shock (a criticism perhaps particularly prevalent after his series of portraits of the Queen). In fact, they are not supposed to be degrading, but humorous- Condo says that when he sees great paintings ‘a big smile comes on my face… and I’m  hoping that’s the same kind of smile that people will have when they look at my work’-and have a far deeper meaning behind them.

Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen, Condo- 2006

The paintings are not representative, but figurative- they represent the inner emotions of their subjects, hence the title, Mental States. Looking at them is supposed to make us reflect on our own thoughts and situations, as Condo says, ‘They may not be pretty, but I think we can all see ourselves in these pictures’. And so the exhibition is not just about the mental state of Condo’s characters, but those of the viewers, ‘it’s going to be about the people who come to see the paintings and what it does to their mental state to see all these different reflections of humanity… happening at the same time on the same wall.’ Many of the paintings also represent Condo’s mental state, especially his abstract expressionist-style works, which he calls ‘stream of consciousness canvases’.

Screaming Priest, Condo- 2004

Condo’s concern then, seems to be how art history can relate to the ordinary person, and what the role of the painter is in all this, and his answer is to use the traditional genre of historical painting to explore the lives of those ordinary people, with his self as the middle man- ‘I like the idea that the painter can right what’s wrong… make something beautiful out of something horrible’.

This attitude is exemplified by the collection of misshapen and distorted gold heads that greet you at the entrance to the exhibition. They have names like, ‘The Alcoholic’, and play, like so many of Condo’s paintings, with the idea of what is a suitable subject for artworks. Their unique attraction comes in their own pre-emption of the inevitable criticism of his works- by overlaying grotesque shapes with gold, Condo self-deprecatingly refers to the fact that his works could be seen as rubbish with an expensive price tag, and perhaps also comments on the wider tradition of objects being considered art simply because they are made by artists or placed in art institutions.

The Alcoholic, Condo- 2002