I n Untitled, through George Condo’s entropic and riotous figuration, rapper Kanye West is depicted as a tragic hero.The present painting dramaticized West as a felled king, who despite his decapitation stares intently forward, crown still firmly affixed to his head. Executed in 2010, West approached George Condo to paint five portraits for the cover of what would become the Grammy Award-winning My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. This work closely resembles one of the final cover paintings, Head with a sword, which like Untitled, Condo imbues with a martyrdom of Shakespearean proportion. Citing strong influence from the tale of Macbeth–evidenced most prominently in the present work–Condo explained “[West] was free from exile by having the cathartic moment in the image. He’s alive in the painting, you know what I mean? In a strange way it’s like, he opened his eyes” (Ibid.). The final paintings Condo produced in this collaboration would incite one of the most disruptive discussions of censorship in music history. Condo’s provocative Naked sphinx straddling Kanye would ultimately be released in an obscured, pixelated form after being banned by multiple retailers after the work’s unveiling as the primary cover art. Condo has continued to collaborate with other musical artists, including Travis Scott in 2020, signaling the esteem held for the artist amongst the musical vanguard. An example of this historic collaboration, Untitled reveals the creative synergy between both artists, serving as a prime example of the sharp wit and imaginative allusions inherent to Condo’s caricatures.