Judd Tully reports from Frieze Week that George Condo has taken a few body blows this week putting in the category of clear losers:
One of these was the overly prolific American painter George Condo, whose New Museum-organized survey show opens at the Hayward Gallery here later this month. Both entries, “Cave Painting” from 2008 and “Two Works (1) The Departure, 2004 (ii) The Arrival” from 2004, failed to sell against their respective estimates of £300-500,000 and £300-400,000. There were plenty of Condo paintings on view at Frieze, and the hunger simply wasn’t there to suck these up.
“There has been a lot on the market,” confirmed Phillips contemporary head Michael McGinnis after the sale, adding that the overall result for Phillips may have been a “reaction to so much material on the market.” He added that, “it was definitely an uncertain time coming into this week, and in a climate like this it’s hard to predict what the outcome will be.”
