Invocations Of Miles

Invocations Of Miles, a screen print made by George Condo in 2000, may be understood as a further exploration of his elusive approach to portraiture. Produced at the turn of the century, this work includes several nude figures. Many do not have faces and the expressions of others are minimal. Condo described this work as an expression of “Artificial Realism”. What he meant by this was that he sought to depict reality through an ostensibly abstract lens.

This work builds on the themes that Condo introduced to his oeuvre in the clown works of the 1980s. One reading of Invocations of Miles is that it is a group portrait. However, the individual characteristics of the figures that Condo represents are elusive. Instead, the emotive and expressive effect of the composition is what creates atmosphere in the work. Therefore, this work may be understood as relating to Condo’s own concept of the imaginary portrait. He sought, through this approach, to create a new concept for portraiture: one that focussed less on the specific features and characteristics of the sitter, instead using memory to construct the portrait.