George Condo

signed and dated 07 on the reverse

Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Zurich, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, George Condo: New Works, June - July 2007

This work is overall in very good condition. Spots of unpainted areas in the pink background near the girl's left ear, along the left edge, as well as near the bottom right corner which are inherent to the artist's working method. A minor light scratch can be seen along the top edge, 8 cm from the right edge of the work. Very light wear is visible at the upper right corner. Few spots of light brown accretions near the girl's right ear. Under UV light examination, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Young Girl is an archetypal example of George Condo’s acclaimed visual vocabulary that delves deep into the depths of the fragmented human psyche. The painting forms part of a large corpus of fabricated portraiture that the artist began developing in the mid-1980s; during that decade, which the artist spent in Europe, Condo fervently studied the works of great masters such as Diego Velazquez, Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Edouard Manet. Their works sparked Condo’s interest in interrogating art historical tropes such as the ideals of female beauty under a fresh contemporary lens; the artist subsequently developed a unique and highly iconic aesthetic involving quasi-surreal and cubist portraits with imaginary sitters. Stylistically, Pablo Picasso’s influence on Condo’s modus operandi is unmistakable and the artist openly pays homage to his Modernist predecessor. While Picasso’s cubist portraits of his muses and mistresses simultaneously show various facets of their facial features on a single two-dimensional plane, Condo reapplies the technique of analytical cubism to his own paintings, showing different and often conflicting psychological states. In the artist’s own words: “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” (George Condo, quoted in The Guardian, 10 February 2014).