Conjuring conflicting psychological states of passion and rage, Green Eyed Lady from 2016 dances with frenetic, textural energy, a paradigm of George Condo’s knife-edge dance between the enticing and the grotesque. Within the fractured realm of the present work, abstraction and figuration collide with thrilling velocity before the viewer’s eyes; the moment one picks out a form, it slips back into the delirium of the whole. Teeth, eyes and hair collide and fragment, manipulating our ability to read the image before us. Extraordinary for its vibrant coloration, compositional intricacy, and rich surface of expressionistic brushwork, Green Eyed Lady is a paradigm of Condo’s remarkable ability to synthesise diverse influences into a singular and deeply compelling visual language. Steeped in the traditions of Cubism and the legacy of Picasso yet altered through Pop culture idioms, Green Eyed Lady demonstrates George Condo’s extraordinary command of image, colour and composition.

Painted in 2016, the present work is a remarkable example of the artist’s celebrated Drawing Paintings (2009-present), so called because they marked a shift away from the oil paint that Condo had used up to that point towards a multi-media approach consisting of acrylic, charcoal and pastel. These intriguing works continue to draw on techniques and styles of his Modernist predecessors while exploring what he has called 'abstract figuration'. When he began the series of Drawing Paintings, Condo was looking to move away from “all those pods and peripheral beings I’ve been working on over the last decade” and “to bring back more naturalistic faces and bodies'' (George Condo, quoted in Calvin Tomkins, 'Portraits of Imaginary People: How George Condo Reclaimed Old Master Painting', The New Yorker, 17 January 2011, p. 65). Between the melee of exaggerated features and fragmented, abstract planes, flashes of the artist’s most important motifs are clearly discernible: Old Master portraits, his own brand of ‘psychological Cubism,’ cartoon references, and a commitment to constantly pushing the boundaries that separate figurative and non-representational painting. Evocatively recalling Pablo Picasso’s masterful Cubist facture through a visage which slowly melds, morphs and dissolves into a geometric being, Green Eyed Lady is a masterful example of Condo’s self-termed mode of ‘psychological cubism.’ Where Picasso radically shattered the picture plane to explore multiple viewpoints in the same moment, Condo ruptures his compositions to reveal the multifaceted and kaleidoscopic complexities of human emotion. As the artist describes, “And I guess that was the other thing I got from Picasso. It’s the idea of Cubism—but rather than seeing and depicting this coffee cup, say, from four different angles at the same time, I’m seeing a personality from multiple angles at once. Instead of space being my subject, I’m painting all of someone’s emotional potentialities at once, and that’s what I’d call Psychological Cubism” (George Condo, quoted in Emily Nathan, ‘George Condo Sees Faces and Screaming Heads Everywhere’, Artnet, 14 October 2015).

Dividing the highly stylised and multitudinous ‘subject’ of the present work into multiple planes of experience, Green Eyed Lady is Jazz-like in its recapitulation of the human form. Blurring the traditional delineations between drawing and painting, finished and unfinished, flat two-dimensionality and sculptural depth, the present work builds upon years of refining and maturing his iconic figurative style. Revealing an artist now at the height of his career, the present work embodies a “ freedom of line and colour [that] blur the distinction between drawing and painting. They are about beauty and horror walking hand in hand. They are about improvisation on the human figure and its consciousness” (George Condo, quoted in “George Condo: Drawing Paintings”, Press Release, Skarstedt Gallery New York, November 2011, online). Isolating the eyes, teeth and ears against a mottled blue background, Condo’s application of red, orange, green and blue pigment seems to convulse from within the pictorial frame.

Bringing together elements of beauty and the macabre with expressionistic brushwork in a kaleidoscopic sweep of colours, Green Eyed Lady invites the viewer on a journey into the depths of the human psyche and the creative process. Existing in the intoxicating liminal space between the figurative and the abstract, Green Eyed Lady takes on a hybrid state that has a been central to Condo’s oeuvre since the major works Diaries of Milan (1984) and Dancing to Miles (1985), both in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

《綠 眼女士》呈現激情與憤怒兩種矛盾的心理狀態，風格狂放，充滿力量，荒誕離奇卻又無比誘人，是喬治·康多不可多得的佳作。在破碎分裂的畫面中，抽象與具象在觀者眼前激烈碰撞；每當觀者捕捉到一種形體，形體又旋即回歸於整體的狂亂之中。牙齒、眼睛和頭髮相互碰撞破碎，支配我們對眼前影像的解讀。雖深受立體主義傳統和畢加索影響，《綠眼女士》屬流行文化的典型風格，色彩鮮豔、構圖複雜，加上富表現力的筆觸，可見康多擅於結合不同流派，構造出一種獨特且極具吸引力的視覺語言，在圖像、色彩和構圖的掌控方面如魚得水，遊刃有餘。

本作創於 2016 年，是藝術家著名的「素描繪畫」系列（2009 年至今）的典範之作。之所以稱為「素描繪畫」，是因為系列標誌著康多從本來的油彩轉向包括壓克力、炭筆和粉彩的多媒材技法。這些精彩作品繼續借鑒現代主義前人的技巧和風格，同時探索他所謂的「抽象具象」。康多開始創作「素描繪畫」系列時，希望擺脫「過去十年一直研究的莢狀和邊緣生物」，並「帶回更多自然主義的面孔和身體。」（喬治·康多，引自卡爾文·湯姆金斯，〈虛構人物的肖像：喬治·康多如何重新演繹古典油畫〉，《紐約客》，2011 年1 月17 日，頁 65）在充斥著誇張怪誕的特徵和支離破碎的抽象平面的渾沌中，藝術家的中心主題仍然清晰可辨：古典油畫肖像、他自立的「心理立體主義」、卡通形象參考，以及不斷突破具象與抽象界限的投入。《綠眼女士》慢慢融合變形，再蛻變成幾何多面容貌，不但完美演釋康多的「心理立體主義」，亦令人想到巴布羅·畢加索（Pablo Picasso）的立體主義創作。畢加索藉完全解析畫面，探索同一時刻的多個視點，而康多則拆解作品，以揭示人類方方面面的複雜情感。正如藝術家所言，「我想這是我從畢加索那兒學到的另一件事：立體主義的概念。不過，我不是同時從四個不同角度觀察和描繪這個咖啡杯，而是同時從多個角度觀察一個人的個性。我不是以空間為主題，而是同時描繪一個人的所有情感潛力。這就是我所說的心理立體主義。」（喬治·康多，引自艾米麗·內森，〈喬治·康多到處都看到臉孔和尖叫的頭顱〉，Artnet，2015 年 10 月 14 日）

在《綠眼女士》中，康多將高度風格化和分裂的「主題」交錯疊放成多個情感體驗平面，並以爵士樂般的風格重塑人類形態。本作奠基於他多年磋琢和日漸成熟的經典具象風格，抹去素描與繪畫、完成與未竟、平面二維性和雕塑深度之間的傳統界限，體現出「線條和色彩的自由，模糊素描與繪畫之間的分別。它們是美麗與恐怖攜手並進，是有關人體與其意識的即興之作」（喬治·康多，引自「喬治·康多：素描繪畫」，新聞稿，紐約 Skarstedt 畫廊，2011 年 11 月，網上），將這位正處於創作生涯巔峰的藝術家的獨特風格表現得淋漓盡致。康多將眼睛、牙齒和耳朵與斑駁的藍色背景分隔開來，紅色、橙色、綠色和藍色顏料似乎在畫面內扭曲抖動。

《綠眼女士》將美麗與恐怖的元素糅合極富表現力的筆觸，呈現出繽紛奪目的色彩，邀請觀者踏上旅程，一同探索人類心靈深處與創作過程。存在於具象與抽象之間，本作當中的多面容貌，自現藏紐約現代藝術博物館的主要作品《米蘭日記》（1984 年）和《舞動幾百里》（1985 年）以來，就一直是康多作品的核心，極具代表性。