Inspired by some of the greatest artists from the past, from Diego Velázquez to Pablo Picasso, George Condo (b. 1957) is one of the foremost contemporary artists of his generation.
Condo’s immediately recognisable style and recent market rise has made his work a popular art investment.
Born in New Hampshire in 1957, Condo was a casual artist and musician in a band called The Girls, until he met Jean-Michel Basquiat, who convinced him to move to New York and pursue a career as an artist. In his early years in New York, Condo worked in Andy Warhol’s studio, the Factory, and became close with some of the most exciting artists of the day, like Keith Haring.
Early in his career, he worked in a style he coined “artificial realism”, which combined techniques, subjects, and styles from art history’s most celebrated artists. Condo would later change his style to what he would describe as “psychological cubism”, which take the form of multi-layered paintings that explore the complexities of the human psyche.
Whilst Condo has been an active artist for nearly forty years, it’s only more recently that his market has significantly grown; it wasn’t until 2012 that one of his works hammered down above the $1 million mark at auction.
To some degree, this can be seen as a result of celebrity marketing: Condo’s controversial design for Kanye West’s 2010 album cover, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, propelled him into the public consciousness, seeing a wider interest develop in investing in George Condo. Around a similar time, he had his first truly major exhibition at New York’s New Museum in 2011, which would later travel Rotterdam, London, and Frankfurt over the following year. His rising profile in both the art and wider cultural world, saw Condo become an artist to invest in over the coming years.
Yet, it wasn’t until around 2018 that Condo’ prices would really begin to take off. On the primary market, his newer style – the “psychological cubism”, which combined both drawing and painting within one artwork – were hugely popular among collectors looking to invest in Condo, but extremely difficult to get access to. So, as demand outweighed supply, when they did arrive on the secondary market at auction, the prices exploded.
Condo’s auction record now stands at $6.85 million, and with his paintings regularly appearing at major auctions and exceeding $2 million, he is firmly a blue-chip artist. His recent velocity is demonstrated by six of his top ten records having been set since 2020. Meanwhile, all ten can be classified as examples of his Drawing Paintings – technical paintings that embody his idea of psychological cubism. This shows that when it comes to investing in Condo, certain paintings are more in demand than others, but with the right painting, it can be an excellent art investment.
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