By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Pot-bellied superheroes smoking cigarettes, nude women with disfigured faces, wicked-looking clowns and a scoundrel named Rodrigo are just some of the eccentric characters that inhabit the paintings of renowned American artist George Condo.
Condo, known as a master of ``artificial realism,'' is finally having his first show in Seoul. Nine of his darkly humorous paintings and three bronze sculptures are currently on display at the Seomi & Tuus House, in Cheongdam-dong, through April 29.
Unfortunately, Condo couldn't make it to Seoul for his first solo show, but he managed a telephone interview with The Korea Times from his home in New York.
Born in Concord, New Hampshire in 1957, Condo has dabbled in art and classical music since he was a child. ``It was a contest between music and art. Art finally won out. By 18 or 19, I decided I was more into painting, I was better at it,'' he said.
After moving to Boston, he found himself joining a punk rock band called The Girls. ``We went to New York and on our first night, we played at a club. The other band playing that night was called Gray, Jean-Michel Basquiat's band. The first guy I met in New York that night was Basquiat,'' he said.
Soon after moving to New York, the band broke up. ``We realized that if we became known as rock stars, there would be no way we would be taken seriously as painters. We wouldn't get any respect, so it was better to quit now before anything good actually happened,'' he laughed.
To make ends meet, Condo found a job working for Andy Warhol's factory. At first, he had to write press releases, and then to make silkscreen prints.
``Three years later, Warhol and Keith Haring went into a gallery and they bought three paintings each. Later when I met Warhol, I didn't tell him I worked for him. I felt he might be disappointed to find out I was diamond dusting his prints a few years ago. I felt Andy didn't have much respect for the people who were working for him. … But I considered it a great moment. I was lucky to be working for Andy Warhol,'' he said.