Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is an ink print by George Condo. It dates from 2006 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
It is held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, reflecting its significance within Condo’s broader printmaking practice.
Untitled (2006) is a screenprint from a limited portfolio of seven works by George Condo, blending digital printing with hand-applied screenprinting and occasional collage. The piece belongs to a series that explores the intersection of mechanical reproduction and manual intervention. It is held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, reflecting its significance within Condo’s broader printmaking practice.
Subject & Meaning
The composition presents a cluster of distorted human forms, their limbs and features overlapping in ambiguous spatial relationships. Faces exhibit exaggerated traits—bulging eyes, elongated noses, vacant or grinning mouths—suggesting psychological fragmentation rather than narrative. The figures appear neither engaged nor distinct, evoking a sense of collective unease or internal disarray, as if rendered from a subconscious space.
Technique & Style
Condo combined digital printing with screenprinting, allowing for layered textures and irregular ink application. Hand-added collage elements introduce tactile variation, disrupting the uniformity of the printed surface. The blue monochrome background flattens depth, while the sketchy, gestural lines of the figures convey urgency and instability, reinforcing the work’s psychological tension through material contrast.
History & Provenance
Created in 2006, Untitled emerged during a period when Condo was intensively exploring print media alongside his painting practice. The portfolio was produced in collaboration with a New York-based print studio, known for experimental processes. It entered The Museum of Modern Art’s collection shortly after its completion, recognized for its innovative fusion of analog and digital techniques in contemporary printmaking.
Context
Condo’s work in the mid-2000s engaged with the legacy of European modernism and American pop culture, reconfiguring classical portraiture into unsettling, hybrid forms. This print aligns with his broader interest in the grotesque and the psychological, drawing from sources as varied as Renaissance painting and comic absurdity. The use of blue as a dominant tone echoes earlier 20th-century modernist experiments in emotional tonality.
Legacy
Untitled exemplifies Condo’s influence on contemporary printmaking by demonstrating how traditional techniques can be reanimated through digital processes. Its inclusion in MoMA’s collection affirms its role in expanding the boundaries of the medium. The work continues to inform artists exploring the instability of identity and the materiality of image-making in the digital age.
Artist & collection
Artist
George Condo (born 1957) is an American visual artist who works in painting, drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. He lives and works in New York City.
