American artist George Condo’s figurative masterpiece valued at US$3.1m in Hong Kong

In Asia, the interest for Western Art masterpieces in the past few years has boomed in Hong Kong – setting record prices in auctions.

American artist George Condo is an example – where his abstract paintings broke Asian and global auction records. During this Spring season, his Transparent Female Forms chef-d'oeuvre will head the 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Phillips Hong Kong. Estimated between HK$25 and 35 million (around US$3.1 to 4.4 million) dollars, it remains to be seen whether the American artist will set a new high in this upcoming sale.  

Alongside Condo, works by Matthew Wong, David Hockney, Lee Ufan, Zhang Xiaogang and Yoshitomo Nara are also featured as highlights in the auction.


George Condo

Lot 9 | George Condo | Transparent Female Forms, Acrylic, chalk and pastel on linen

Created in 2009
198.1 x 289.2 cm
Provenance:

  • Skarstedt Gallery, New York
  • Private Collection
  • Phillips, New York, 7 December 2020, Lot 26
  • Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Estimate: HK$25,000,000 – 35,000,000


In 2017, Condo's Young Girl with Blue Dress work starred at Phillips Hong Kong. Estimated between HK$3 and 5 million dollars, it realised HK$12.1 million (around US$1.5 million) dollars – which exceeded expectations and set a new Asian auction record. Three years later, in 2020, his Force Field painting fetched HK$53.1 million (around US$6.7 million) dollars – which broke the global auction record for the artist at Christie’s Hong Kong.

Then, in 2021, Shanghai Long Museum held the largest Asian solo exhibition of Condo. Titled The Picture Gallery, it presented more than 200 paintings, sculptures and drawings – focusing on his important works since the late 1970s.


Condo's Young Girl with Blue Dress (2007) | Phillips Hong Kong, 2017 | Sold: HK$12.1 million (around US$1.5 million)

Condo's Force Field (2010) | Christie's Hong Kong, 2020 | Sold: HK$53.1 million (around US$6.7 million)

The Long Museum in Shanghai held a solo exhibition based on Condo's work in 2021, entitled The Picture Gallery

Deeply inspired by his idol, Spanish Master Pablo Picasso, Condo invented his trademark style of psychological cubism. Fusing figurative and abstract elements, he depicts grotesque characters with snarled grimaces, exaggerated body parts and fragmentation.

A kaleidoscope of neon-pastel hues drizzled across a neutral ground, are superimposed with gestural improvisations that lend the work to a sense of rhythm invoking Condo’s connection with music – which he studied alongside art history in university. Sensuous female figures that traverse the composition appear in and out of the picture plane – their faces adorned with elegant pearls, full lips and luscious hair are rendered with fluidity.

Created in 2009, this painting marked the beginning of a decade-long dedication to his Drawing Paintings series. It was also a professional turning point for the artist – as it was a year before the artist’s inclusion in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York’s 2010 Biennial, and two years before his monumental mid-career retrospective at the New Museum, New York.



Lot 11 | Matthew Wong | Pink Wave, Oil on canvas

Created in 2017
121.9 x 152.4 cm
Provenance:

  • Karma Gallery, New York
  • Private Collection
  • Sotheby's, New York, 8 December 2020, Lot 6
  • Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Estimate: HK$16,000,000 – 26,000,000


The robust market interest for Matthew Wong’s works is hard to miss in the sales during the past few seasons. His works made their auction debut in 2020  a year after he took his own life at the age of 35.

Largely self-taught, this Chinese-Canadian artist created about 1,000 works before his passing. He is known for presenting seemingly contradictory ambiance with his ebullient palette.


Matthew Wong

Inspired by his daydreams, movies and long walks, Wong’s imagined landscapes are suffused with a poetic sorcery that ignites the surfaces of his compositions – an eternal dance that permits midnight forests to burn in the darkness, stretches ivory tundra infinite, and make flora and fauna become interchangeable.

He combined thick impasto strokes with sweeping tracks of pattern and expanses of black canvas in a harmony that demanded incongruity yet delivered harmony. This is epitomised in this present lot – where teal and navy horizontals are broken up by the broad burgundy coastline and the speckled beach, while the golden tributary is crowned by a floral explosion of fuchsia.



Lot 12 | David Hockney | Painted Landscape (Or Red and Blue Landscape), Acrylic on canvas

Created in 1965
152.2 x 151.1 cm
Provenance:

  • Kasmin Ltd., London (acquired directly from the artist in 1965)
  • Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
  • Private Collection, Belgium (acquired from the above in 1969)
  • Christie’s, London, 21 June 2007, Lot 371
  • Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Estimate: HK$16,000,000 – 24,000,000


One of the most talented and prolific artists of the 21st century, Hockney is best known for his landscapes and figure paintings. At one point, he was the most valuable living artist when his Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) masterwork garnered US$90.3 million dollars in 2018. Amongst Hockney’s top 10 auction records, four are landscape paintings. It was also the first time that this present painting appeared in auction.

Created in 1965, Painted Landscape (Or Red and Blue Landscape) is an early example of the artist’s ever-evolving inquisition into the conventions of perspective in painting. Highly self-aware, Hockney’s paintings are explorations of the nuanced relations between the viewer, painter and the painting itself. Throughout his career, many of Hockney’s works demonstrate this intention – highlighting the assumptions of the viewer when gazing upon a painting.


David Hockney

Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972 | Christie's New York, 2018 | Sold: US$90.3 million

Painted around the same year as the present work, both Play Within a Play (1963) and Portrait Surrounded by Artistic Devices (1965) demonstrate Hockney’s endeavour in exploring with optical illusions and different mediums, whilst juxtaposing minimalism with figurative elements in his work.

In this present lot, he used hues of vermilion and cerulean blue to create impressions of floating clouds and serene waters under a splendid sunset. Meanwhile, the emerald curtains on both sides are meticulously rendered – acting as the focal point of the composition as its opacity stands out from the thinly veiled washes of colour beyond the window.


Hockney's Play Within a Play (1963) 

Hockney's Portrait Surrounded by Artistic Devices (1965) 


Other highlight lots:


Lot 28 | Lee Ufan | From Line No. 790372, Oil and mineral pigment on canvas

Created in 1979
135.2 x 166.8 cm
Provenance:

  • Takagi Gallery, Nagoya
  • Himawari Gallery, Tokyo (acquired from the above in 1996)
  • Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1998)
  • Private Collection (acquired from the above in 2009)
  • Acquired from the above by the present owner

Estimate: HK$9,000,000 – 14,000,000


Lot 25 | Zhang Xiaogang | Bloodline Series – Big Family, Oil on canvas

Created in 2006
160 x 200.5 cm
Provenance:

  • Private Collection
  • Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 7 April 2007, Lot 157
  • Private Collection
  • Ravenel, Hong Kong, 30 May 2011, Lot 46
  • Private Collection
  • China Guardian, Hong Kong, 29 May 2017, Lot 616
  • Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Estimate: HK$7,500,000 – 10,000,000


Lot 29 | Pierre Soulages | Peinture 102 x 130 cm, 11 mars 2016; Acrylic on canvas

Created in 2016
102 x 130 cm
Provenance:

  • Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired directly from the artist)
  • Private Collection, Singapore
  • Acquired from the above by the present owner

Estimate: HK$7,500,000 – 10,000,000


Lot 10 | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | La Bergere, Oil on canvas

Created in circa 1902
41 x 32.5 cm
Provenance:

  • Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris
  • Bernheim-Jeune (acquired from the above 15 January 1914)
  • Unknown Auction, Lausanne, 31 December 1916, Lot no. unknown
  • Ambroise Vollard, Paris
  • The Mayor Gallery, London (acquired from the above in 1948)
  • Allan Millar, UK (acquired from the above 15 April 1952)
  • Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17 June 1960, Lot 101
  • Private Collection, Paris
  • Private Collection, Europe (thence by descent from the above owner)
  • Acquired from the above by the present owner

Estimate: HK$7,000,000 – 9,000,000


Lot 16 | Nicolas Party | Two Portraits, Pastel on linen

Created in 2016
140 x 140.3 cm
Provenance:

  • Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
  • Private Collection, Hong Kong
  • Acquired from the above by the present owner

Estimate: HK$6,000,000 – 8,000,000


Lot 20 | Yoshitomo Nara | Untitled, Acrylic on canvas

Created in 1991
70 x 69.9 cm
Provenance:

  • Gallery D'Eendt, Amsterdam
  • Private Collection, Amsterdam (acquired from the above in the 1990s)
  • Thence by descent to the present owner

Estimate: HK$6,000,000 – 8,000,000


Lot 5 | Hernan Bas | Who Told Them We Were Coming?, Acrylic on canvas

Created in 2013
183 x 152 cm
Provenance:

  • Frederic Snitzer, Miami
  • Acquired from the above by the present owner

Estimate: HK$4,000,000 – 6,000,000


Lot 22 | Adrian Ghenie | Pie Fight Study 4, Oil on canvas

Created in 2008
52 x 52 cm
Provenance:

  • Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp
  • Private Collection (acquired from the above in 2008)
  • Christie's, London, 7 March 2018, Lot 120
  • Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Estimate: HK$4,000,000 – 6,000,000


Lot 18 | Ernie Barnes | Life After Sundown, Acrylic on canvas 

Created in 1979 
92 x 122 cm
Provenance: 

  • Private Collection, Italy (gifted by the artist)
  • Thence by descent to the present owner

Estimate: HK$1,500,000  2,500,000


Auction Details:

Auction House: Phillips Hong Kong
Sale: 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Date and Time: 22 June 2022 | 6pm (Hong Kong local time)
Number of lots: 49