Standing Nude in the Night with Bubbles is a captivating example of George Condo’s exploration of the female nude genre. Always out of step with his contemporaries, Condo consistently remained dedicated to his own brand of painting, which draws on an astonishing range of art historical sources to build a painterly lexicon that is uniquely his own. As the curator Ralph Rugoff once said, “Condo has explored the outer suburbs of acceptability while making pictures that, for all of their outrageous humor, are deeply immersed in memories of European and American traditions of painting” (Ralph Rugoff, ‘The Mental States of America’ in: Exh. Cat., London, Hayward Gallery, George Condo: Mental States, 2011, p. 11). Indeed, the artist draws inspiration from canonical figures of art history, ranging from old masters such as Diego Velaquez and Eduoard Manet, to the modern masters of Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso and Willem de Kooning. In the present work, the grand tradition of the female nude is translated through Condo’s pictorial language in an art historical hybridization.

The nude in the present work stands tall, her faceless head directly confronting the viewer in a manner reminiscent of Manet’s Olympia. The female anatomy is simplified into a series of geoMetricas l forms, her two circular breasts resting beside a long tubular neck, from which loose, flat arms dangle like a deflated balloon. Oscillating between the figuration and abstract, the ambiguous figure recalls the fragmented nudes of de Kooning’s Woman series, whilst its graphic geoMetricas lity also recalls the surreal architectural landscapes of de Chirico. From her large ears emerge speckles of yellow, dotting the sky with twinkling stars arranged in orbits around her head. Bubbles float around in an ambiguous nightscape, its innocent whimsicality contrasting with the distortion of the nude body to create playful absurdity that is characteristic of Condo’s work.

Emerging onto the 1980s New York art scene alongside seminal figures such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Condo’s early works explored a new form of figuration which blended the representational and the abstract. Executed in 1999, the present work demonstrates Condo’s continued exploration into the formal possibilities of art historical tropes to push the boundaries and defy expectations for painting and the nude in a modern setting. A fantastical creature of Condo’s universe, the complete ambiguity of the anatomical form and its faceless, identity-less subject creates endless imaginary potential that both humorously revives and undermines the integrity of the nude tradition. Walking the line between pathos, hilarity and the grotesque, Standing Nude in the Night with Bubbles is an outstanding example of Condo’s pioneering oeuvre.

《泡泡夜裡的站姿裸女》是喬治·康多探索女性裸體的一幅作品，令人浮想聯翩。雖然《泡泡夜裡的站姿裸女》是藝術家的早年作品，但已展示出相當嫻熟的技巧，這在拍賣市場並不常見，康多筆下的人物現已成為他的標誌，他於千禧年代一直以人為母題發展作品，此作是他最早創作的其中一幅肖像畫。康多總與時人的步伐不一致，他專注於發展具個人特色的繪畫，從各類型的藝術史料吸收養分，建立屬於自己的一套繪畫詞彙。策展人雷夫·魯戈夫曾表示：「康多一直在大家接受的界線以外探索，卻同時創作出反映他浸淫於歐美繪畫傳統的畫作，縱使他的作品充滿荒誕的幽默感。」（雷夫·魯戈夫撰，〈美國的心理狀態〉，《喬治·康多：心理狀態》展覽圖錄，海沃德美術館，倫敦，2011年，頁11）事實上，康多從藝術史上的經典人物尋找靈感，從維拉斯蓋茲和愛德華·馬奈等古典大師，到喬治・德・基里科、巴布羅·畢加索和威廉·德庫寧等當代巨匠，無所不包。在本作中，康多透過由藝術史混合生成的圖像語彙，轉化長久以來繪畫女性裸體的傳統。

畫中的裸女身姿挺拔，沒有五官的頭顱直視觀眾，恍如馬奈的名作《奧林匹婭》。她的人體結構簡化成一系列的幾何形狀，圓形的雙乳依傍長管狀的脖子，鬆弛扁平的雙臂像洩氣的氣球垂在頸下。這個在各方面都模糊不清的女人，於具象與抽象之間搖擺不定，讓人想到德庫寧的《女人》系列中支離破碎的裸女，而幾何形狀的表達，則令人記起基里科筆下超現實的建築風景。裸女的大耳朵後冒出閃爍的黃色星光，排成天體軌跡圍繞她的頭顱。泡泡在曖昧不明的夜景飄浮，如此天真的奇思妙想與扭曲裸露的身體形成反差，產生康多畫作所特有調皮的荒誕感。

上世紀八十年代康多於紐約藝壇冒起，同一時期的重要藝術家有凱斯·哈林和尚·米榭·巴斯基亞。康多的早期作品探究新形式的具象表現，將寫實和抽象合二為一。這幅作品繪於1999年，顯示康多不斷從藝術史的各種主題發掘形式上的可能性，突破界限，對抗現代普遍對繪畫和裸體藝術的期望。在康多的浩瀚宇宙裡，無人知曉畫中的奇幻生物身體是如何構造，她沒有面容和身份，這幅畫作幽默地復興以裸體入畫的傳統，卻又破壞這個傳統的完整性，製造無盡的想像空間。《泡泡夜裡的站姿裸女》行走於悲涼、歡鬧、怪異形象的界線之間，是康多甚具開拓性的一件出色傑作。