Untitled (Artist and Muse) from 2015 is a brilliant example of American artist George Condo’s ability to express a character’s various psychological states, capturing concurrent trains of thought through his unique artistic language that draws on the methodology of cubism. Since the early 1980s, Condo has incorporated a myriad of different artistic references into his eccentric oeuvre, revealing a marked fascination with key figures in the canon of art history and a particular indebtedness to the cubist works of Pablo Picasso. Describing his approach to painting as “psychological cubism”, Condo adopts Picasso’s revolutionary method of representing reality. Like Picasso, the artist places emphasis on flatness and breaks down figures or objects into distinct planes in order to depict different viewpoints within the same space. However, while Picasso’s new way of seeing aimed to suggest the three-dimensionality of the object, Condo advances this approach further, illustrating the mental states of his figures. Explaining his adoption of “psychological cubism”, Condo stated in an interview with Stuart Jeffries for The Guardian: “Picasso painted a violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same with psychological states. Four of them can occur simultaneously. Like glimpsing a bus with one passenger howling over a joke they’re hearing down the phone, someone else asleep, someone else crying - I’ll put them all in one face” (the artist quoted in Stuart Jeffries, “George Condo: ‘I was delirious. Nearly died’”, The Guardian, 10 February 2014, online). Further elaborating on his desire to reproduce the emotional spectrum of the human experience, Condo mused: “It’s what I call artificial realism. That’s what I do. I try to depict a character’s train of thoughts simultaneously - hysteria, joy, sadness, desperation. If you could see these things at once that would be like what I’m trying to make you see in my art” (the artist quoted in Stuart Jeffries, Ibid.). In Untitled (Artist and Muse), Condo wonderfully captures the moods and thoughts of his two characters, the figure on the left of the canvas an apparent self-portrait of the artist, in confrontation or communication with the blonde female figure to his right.

Untitled (Artist and Muse) exemplifies the artist’s “Drawing Paintings” of sketch-like figures and splatterings of vivid colour, using a variety of mediums, including acrylic paint, pigment stick and gold paint as seen in the present work. In an interview with Financial Times, the artist explained: “I love to draw and I love to paint and I thought, why should there be any distinction or hierarchy between those two mediums? Why not put them together as a single thing” (the artist quoted in Julie Belcove, “George Condo interview”, Financial Times, 21 April 2013, online). In his lively canvas works, Condo dissolves the distinction between drawing and painting and the traditional hierarchy perceived between the two, demonstrating that they both exist along the same continuum. In Untitled (Artist and Muse), the artist delineates his figures with dark, daring brushstrokes, typical of many of his post-2010 “Drawing Paintings”. However, the colour palette of the work is especially bright, the luminous honey blonde of the woman’s hair glowing against the light blue of the background. While the woman’s two expressions hint at contentment and joy—the central mouth open wide in a jubilant smile—Condo expresses the inner torment and anxiety of the figure on the left. For the abstracted figure on the left, teeth bared and manic eyes staring wide, Condo employs bolder colours of crimson red alongside dark areas of black and green, juxtaposing the strikingly different moods of his two characters, within the same pictorial space.

One of the most inventive artists of his generation, George Condo was a leading member of the figurative revival of the 1980s, influencing a generation of young artists including John Currin and Lisa Yuskavage. Commencing his career working at Andy Warhol’s Factory in 1980, Condo’s stylised figures that verge on the grotesque have since won the artist international critical and popular acclaim. Amongst his most coveted works created after 2010, Untitled (Artist and Muse) is a rare and mature example of his work to be offered at auction.

美國藝術家喬治・康多（George Condo）獨特而略顯怪誕的藝術語彙深受立體主義啟發，他擅長刻畫人的各種精神狀態，本作《無題（藝術家與繆斯）》就是一例。自1980年代初起，康多積極借鑒歷史上鼎鼎大名的藝術家的創作手法和風格，尤其是畢加索顛覆現實視角的立體主義作品。康多與畢加索一樣重視平面，亦會將人物或物件解拆成不同的塊面，以呈現同一空間內的不同視角。兩位藝術家的分別在於畢加索對現實的嶄新詮釋旨在突顯物件的立體特質，而康多則更進一步，務求描繪人物的心理狀態。在一次訪問中，康多曾如此解釋其「心理立體主義」：「畢加索從同一時間的四個不同角度描繪小提琴，我用相同的方式描繪心理狀態。四種心理狀態同時出現，就如看到在一輛巴士上有人因為在電話裡聽到的笑話而大笑，還有人在睡覺或哭泣──我把他們全部置於同一張臉上」（引述藝術家，載於斯圖爾特・杰弗里斯撰，〈喬治・康多：我神智不清，幾乎死了〉，《衛報》，2014年2月10日，網上資源）。康多渴望重現人生中經歷到的各種情緒，他解釋：「我稱這為人造現實主義。這就是我在做的事情。我嘗試將人物的思緒一併呈現——歇斯底里、喜悅、悲傷和絕望。如能一次過感知這一切，就能看到我想讓大家看到的東西」（引述藝術家，斯圖爾特・杰弗里斯撰，同上）。在本作中，康多精確地捕捉畫中兩個人物的情緒及思緒，左邊的角色似是畫家的自畫像，他正在與右邊的金髮女子對峙或交談。

在本作中，康多運用了多種藝術媒材，包括壓克力彩、顏料棒及金漆，並延續了「素描油畫」系列的風格，以素描般的線條勾勒人物外形，色彩鮮豔並有潑灑的痕跡。在一次《金融時報》的訪問中，康多說：「我喜歡素描、也喜歡油畫，為何兩者之間要分界限、排主次？還不如合二為一」（引述藝術家，載於茱莉・貝爾哥夫，〈喬治・康多訪問〉，《金融時報》，2013年4月21日，網上資源）。康多的作品活潑明快，他瓦解了素描及油畫之間的差別，以及兩者傳統上的高低之分，證明兩者本為一體，同出一脈。 一如2010年後的「素描油畫」作品，康多在本作中以黝黑粗獷的線條勾勒人物的面貌輪廓，不過本作整體色調較為明亮，尤其是女子的金色秀髮在淺藍色的背景中格外鮮明。畫中女子呈現兩個面貌——中間的臉咧嘴而笑，看似是滿足愉快；但左邊的臉卻展露出內心的掙扎和焦慮。至於畫面左方、形象較抽象的人物則齜牙咧嘴、面目猙獰，身披赤紅的色塊，籠罩在一片黑色和綠色的陰影下。康多藉這種強烈的對比，在同一空間中呈現二人截然不同的情緒。

康多是一位破格創新的藝術家，在同輩當中出類拔萃。他也是1980年代初具象繪畫復興風潮的領軍人物，不少後輩受到他的影響，例如約翰・柯林、麗莎・尤斯卡維奇等。康多在1980年加入安迪・沃荷的「工廠」工作室，這是其藝術生涯的起點。自此之後，他憑著別具一格、近乎怪誕的人像畫，在國際藝壇上獲譽無數。康多在2010年後的作品尤其受市場追捧，本作是其中之一，而且展現出藝術家更成熟的風格與技藝，是拍場歷來罕見的康多傑作。