George Condo, one of the most influential and eclectic artists alive today.
A huge array of different styles and influences converge and collide in George Condo’s work, emerging as a new and distinctive style unique to the American artist, which he has labelled “artificial realism”. Condo made his name in the headiness of 1980s New York, and he is now hailed as one of the most important artists alive today.
The prices Condo’s work fetches at auction reflect his popularity in today’s market; his 2010 painting, Force Field, set a new record for the artist when it was sold by Christie’s in July 2020 for £4.6 million. Meanwhile, although prints are not a huge part of Condo’s practice, they frequently reach respectable prices at auction, with the majority selling for between £500 and £5,000, and a significant number reaching up to £50,000.
Below is a list of George Condo’s six most expensive prints sold at auction. If you own a George Condo print and would like to find out more about how much it might be worth, or how to sell it, please contact Mark Littler today.
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Watching Television
This serigraph on canvas dates from 1988, by which time Condo had successfully broken into the art world and established his reputation. Between 1985 and 1995, the artist mostly worked and lived between hotel rooms or rented studios in Paris and New York, whilst also continuing to exhibit widely in galleries on both continents. This print is unusually realistic for Condo, featuring images and appearances from different contemporary TV programmes; it was sold by Phillips de Pury & Company in June 2007 for £65,000, setting a new record for the artist.
Watching Television sold by Phillips in 2007
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
George Condo was born in New Hampshire, but when he was young, the family moved to Chelmsford in Massachusetts. Condo subsequently went on to study art history and music theory at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and he has stated numerous times how important music is to his artistic practice. This is evident in both the way he composes and creates the artworks, but also in his subject matter; this print from 1999, for instance, comes from a series Condo designed to resemble old record covers, and to reflect his own feelings upon listening to different musicians. This Hendrix-based print was sold by Phillips de Pury & Company in December 2010 for £64,850.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience sold by Phillips in 2010
Untitled
This etching from 2019 was sold by Phillips in October 2022 for £21,283, more than £5,000 over its top estimate. Like much of Condo’s work, it is rooted in portraiture, and heavily influenced by the myriad of styles and artistic traditions that Condo has encountered and borrowed from during his life.
Condo’s early training in art history gave him a solid foundation with which to build on, and his subsequent meetings (and in some cases friendships) with New York artists such as Basquiat, Warhol, and Haring added a modern edge to his work. One of the most enduring influences for Condo is also Picasso and Cubism, as is clear to see in this print and many others.
Untitled sold by Phillips in 2022
The Beatles
This print comes from the same series as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and it was sold by Phillips de Pury & Company in June 2007 for £20,000. Condo often speaks of how intrinsically linked painting and music are, interchanging technical terms from each discipline to describe his process. He once said, for instance, “The tempo is a crucial part of painting… All the information I learned from studying music and understanding the complexities of rhythm, chord structures, and music theory can be applied tonally with paint.” Indeed, music is never far away from Condo’s artistic practice, and he’s even created album covers for various musicians – perhaps most controversially for rapper, Kanye West.
The Beatles sold by Phillips in 2007
Radiant Person
George Condo has described his art “as psychological cubism. Picasso painted a violin from four different perspectives at one moment. I do the same with psychological states.” He aims to “capture every aspect of the human personality in a single glance”, often attempting to incorporate multiple contradictory emotions in one piece of art, “because [those emotions] coexist within us.” This “psychological cubism” has been beautifully executed in this complex 2021 print, which was sold by K-Auction in June 2024 for £19,915.
Radient Person sold by K-Auction in 2024
Laughing Clown Composition
Clowns first appeared in Condo’s work of the 1980s, when he was trying to establish his reputation as an artist in New York. This 2020 print revisits the theme, featuring an uncertain number of distorted, fragmented, and slightly-grotesque figures who are clearly inspired by Cubism, and who allow the artist to depict and explore the complexities of the human psyche.
Laughing Clown Composition was sold by Phillips in March 2021 for £18,749. Just like Untitled (2019) and Radiant Person, it was executed using etching with drypoint, a fairly complex and delicate process which highlights Condo’s impressive technique and skilled draughtsmanship.
Laughing Clown Composition sold by Phillips in 2021
