George Condo Explaining His Artwork Used In Kanye West’s Twisted Fantasy

In a surprising collaboration, renowned artist George Condo and hip-hop icon Kanye West joined forces to create the album artwork for West's critically acclaimed "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy." The partnership began with an unexpected call from West to Condo, leading to a series of creative sessions that produced five distinct album covers.

On Kanye’s first visit to Condo’s studio, he blasted “Power.” “Immediately,” Condo explains, “I started having all ideas about these mythological creatures and volcanic landscapes. Parts and pieces from Macbeth. Parts and pieces from some sort of sci-fi landscape.” But when Condo heard the song’s hook, from King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” he told West he wanted to paint a portrait. The next afternoon, West came back and posed. “It’s sort of cubist, you know, this portrait with all these different dimensions to it. Like an African mask with almost a modern face. I wanted to get that feeling that he’s almost a Miles Davis-like guy.”

Condo, known for his contemporary art style, found inspiration in West's music, particularly the track "Power." The artist described his creative process, saying, "I started envisioning mythological creatures and volcanic landscapes, with elements from Macbeth and sci-fi scenery." This resulted in a cubist-style portrait of West, which Condo likens to "an African mask with a modern face."

“That’s a good painting,” Condo says matter-of-factly. “She’s a kind of fragment, between a sphinx, a phoenix, a haunting ghost, a harpy. And then Kanye is also in some sort of strange 1970s burned-out back room of a Chicago blues club having a beer — so far away from the real Kanye West that it’s just a scream.” In painting Kanye in such an outrageous situation, Condo says, “I was challenging him with the imagery as well. He said, ‘I’m shocked, but I like it, and I gotta go with my gut feeling.’” This cover’s already been banned by Wal-Mart and Apple’s iTunes Music Store, much to Condo’s disgust. “The superimposition of people’s perceptions on a cartoon is shocking,” Condo scoffs. “What’s happening in their minds should be banned. Not the painting.”

One of the most controversial pieces features a nude female figure described by Condo as "a fragment, between a sphinx, a phoenix, a haunting ghost, a harpy." This cover sparked debate and was banned by some retailers, prompting Condo to criticize the decision: "The superimposition of people's perceptions on a cartoon is shocking. What's happening in their minds should be banned, not the painting."

Condo remembers that West came to his studio between eight and ten times over the course of the summer. The ballerina — a concept that later worked its way into West’s “Runaway” film and performance at the VMAs — came from one of those visits. “We were hanging around one night, and we were listening to that tune ‘Runaway,’” Condo recalls, when his wife, Anna, showed West a a shot of French dancer Sylvie Guillem moving in slow motion. “And somehow Kanye grabbed onto that idea of the ballerina,” Condo explains. “He just said, ‘Hey man, I’d like to have a great ballerina painting.’ I thought of a ballerina toasting. You know, ‘let’s toast to the scumbags.’”

The collaboration also produced a ballerina-themed cover, inspired by West's "Runaway" performance. Another cover depicts a crowned, severed head, which Condo explains as representing "Kanye's self-imposed exile" and his subsequent freedom through artistic expression.

“I really like that idea of a Shakespearian thing,” West told Condo about this painting of a severed head wearing a crown. The piece’s two contrasting styles -- “cubism and classicism forged together in a single painting” — dovetail, Condo says, with West’s music, with its “layers of different styles happening simultaneously.” What did Kanye see in the picture that made him like it? “His tragedy was a kind of exile that Kanye imposed upon himself,” Condo says. “He 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.”

The final cover, revealed as a surprise, showcases a religious figure in a baroque style. Condo elaborates, "We wanted to push religious imagery into today's world, mirroring the 'paranoid' theme in one of the tracks."

“He’s lost in the world,” Condo says, of this cover that Kanye showed during a recent web chat. “All of a sudden, he was gone. The crown was there, the sword was there, but his head had disappeared. You feel his presence but you don’t see him. He’s been somehow reduced to symbols.” He describes this painting as “a variant, like an outtake,” and hints that it may not in fact be the fifth cover. (Just before getting on the phone, Condo was visited by a Def Jam representative with the album’s final packaging.) “That’s the funny thing,” he says lightly. “This will all come out and there’ll be a few surprises. You can always trust Kanye for a surprise.”

Throughout the process, West and Condo met frequently, blending their artistic visions. The result is a series of covers that reflect the album's complex themes and West's multifaceted artistry, proving that when music and visual art collide, the outcome can be truly extraordinary.

Surprise! Def Jam sent us this photo on Friday, telling us to use it to replace the painting of the headless crown. Explains Condo: