Oil on canvas

80.5 × 59 cm. 31 3/4 × 23 1/4 in.

Signed in English and dated on bottom centre
PROVENANCE
Galerie Monika Sprüth, Cologne
Private Collection
7 May 1992, Sotheby's New York Spring Auction, Lot 207
Collection of Alberto Ulrich, Taxco
Acquired directly by previous private collector in the early 2000s from the above
Important Private Collection, Asia

The Free Spirted Portraiture Master
George Condo's Muse of Volcano as a Tribute to Surrealism

“I hope to reach the state that my paintings can encompass all your collective emotions and experience.”

――George Condo

The rise of Modernism in the early 20th century entailed a revolutionary change in the historic nodes and understanding of aestheticism and visual language. By the new century, Modern artists such as Pablo Picasso defied past traditions and experimented with Cubistic methods as his personalized language. Meanwhile, Andy Warhol pioneered the genre of Pop-art with his renditions of silkscreen replicates, allowing celebrity portraits to become a publicized symbol of the new visual language. By the introduction of the 80's, artist George Condo became an active participant in Europe and America. In his search for his signature, Condo's painting unveils shadows of iconic masters, and displays his characteristic style. Condo's profound knowledge of art history allows him to not only redefine the genre of the figurative and abstraction, and also construct his own idea of Existentialism through portraitures. As New York Times art critic Holland Cotter once noted, “Condo is the missing link between traditional figurative genre and abstraction. He is unequivocally the greatest artist in the 21st century.” Condo reestablished the artistic language of the 80's, became the epitome of his era.

Known for his definitive style of Constructive Realism and Psychological-based Cubism, Condo became an influential and acclaimed artist. His works are widely collected by over 30 important public and private institutions, such as Paris Pompidou, Tate Modern, London, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Guggenheim Museum, New York. Celebrities such as rapper Jay Z, singer Jay Chou, and G-Dragon are also avid collectors of Condo's works. Aside from his influence in the fine art industry, his reputation is also known in the music genre, as Jay-Z's lyric includes a line that notes, “Condos in my condos, I wanna row of”.

A Homage to Dali, Condo's Revolutionarized Symbol in Art History

Symbolic representation has always been Condo's personalized language. The insertion of humour and twisted composition in portraiture is seen in early works such as Muse of Volcano, created in 1983, which emphasized a psychological effect across viewers. This early and important work of his also marks the start of his iconic and prolific oeuvre.

From Condo's early studio in Boston, followed by his stay in East Village for four years, the artist worked in Warhol's studio as an assistant. His friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring was a strong inspiration for the artist as well. Later, Condo's entire year in Los Angles in 1982 to study the Classics' technique resulted in his first solo exhibition at Ulrike Kantor Gallery in Los Angeles in 1983. This inaugural and important exhibition also resulted in Warhol's early collection of Condo's works.

Created in 1983, Muse of Volcano is perceived to be on homage to Salvador Dali, a pioneer of Surrealism. In comparison with Dali's 1937 painting Le Sommeil (Sleep), Muse of Volcano adopted similar composition characteristics, such as the side portraiture of the abstracted figure. In a bright and exciting colours, gradients of brown, green, grey and turquoise compose the imagery of a landscape and mountain eruption. Meanwhile, the red circular object guided by a branch-like composition conveys a sense of motion. As a whole, this surrealistic composition heightens the human psyche and infers mental intuition and imagination.

Fusing the Classic, Building Multi-dimensional Psyche

The concept of sleep and the psyche are themes shared between Condo's Muse of Volcano and Dali's Le Sommeil (Sleep). While Dali's abstracted protagonist represents a large brain, with hair as a form of movement, Condo's highlighted yellow emulates the imagery of hair. By the female figure's neck, the chain of blue pearls in Condo's painting guides our vision to the top of the volcano and its surrounding landscape. In striations, every line and brushwork runs smoothly across the canvas, adhering as one to immerse viewers in the imagination of the artist. In the artist's psyche, reality and fiction emerge and excludes the rule of dimensions. Rather, Condo presented infinite space of freedom. Such freedom can be referenced from Dali's motif of subconsciousness and desire. Indeed, Condo was not simply painting a version of a volcano eruption, but also the deep psychological understanding of the female protagonist, as she dives into her dream and subconscious. As Condo once said, “I am painting a form of mixed-surrealism, which includes multiple forms of realistic symbolism.”

The Risen Soul: The Initiation of Condo's Psychological Cubism

“The figure is somehow the content and the non-content, and the absolute collision of styles and the interruption of one direction by another, almost like channels being changed on the television set before you ever see what is on.”

――Condo

Symbolism in Muse of Volcano is a fine example on the collision of concept and content. As a significant piece of Condo's initiation of the Psychological Cubism style, the single portraiture expresses the complicated and connected notions of emotions and psychological effects. Across Condo's painting, symbolic elements of Favism is noted through the elaborate use of bold colours to highlight the noble identity of the abstracted protagonist. With large, wide eyes and thick plumped limps, the composition and structure deconstruct our preconceived notion of Classical portraitures of the bourgeois class seen in the Renaissance period. On top of the figure's head, the red ball of thoughts, wisdom and artistic telling is situated on a branch-like bone structure, imitating the figure's neck, as well as the symbol of a cross. In relation to prestige status, the cross symbolism also reminds us of the staff of Moses, a representation of authority and power in Christianity. In spite of rich symbolic elements, hints of Cubist style does appear in the form of composition, as the branch separates the figure's face in half, and explicitly affirms the notion of a four-dimensional space; a space where the figure could experience emotions, thoughts, and layers of psychological emotions, to which all is needed to construct a soulful being.

As a painter who is fervent with symbols, Condo implicitly included his name, initials and year of creation into Muse of Volcano. Referencing German master Albrecht Dürer, who inserted his signature into figures of his paintings as a statement of presence, Condo's approach created a dialogue between viewers and the painter. Not only did Condo construct the abstracted protagonist, but he tried to establish his identity as an artist, and an author of the painting. In a classic portraiture format, Condo attempted to release a woman from her long, deep silence. As if being awaken from a volcanic eruption, Condo and the protagonist both found their voice and identity. Their minds and souls were released from constraints and become free-spirited, allowing creativity and imagination to run their natural course.

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,300,000 - 2,500,000
USD: 165,600 - 318,500

Auction Result:
HKD: --