66 - CONDO GEORGE (b. 1957) PANINI'S DOG. 1985. Oil on canvas. 26.50 x 16 cm. On the reverse: signature, title, date, label from Edward Totah Gallery, London, and label from Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich. The work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the artist on a photograph.PROVENANCE: Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich; Edward Totah Gallery, London; Private collection, Genoa; Private collection, Rome. Created in 1985, *Panini’s Dog* belongs to the early phase of George Condo’s painterly exploration, which developed in the early 1980s and was characterized by an engagement with the tradition of European painting and the languages of contemporary American culture. It was precisely during this period that Condo began to establish himself on the international scene, developing a personal artistic language based on a reinterpretation of art history and the freedom to combine different references.The artist looks to the European tradition—particularly to ancient and modern painting—not to reproduce it faithfully, but to appropriate and transform it through a contemporary sensibility. His figures, often suspended between reality and imagination, are constructed through distortions, simplifications, and unexpected juxtapositions, giving rise to ambiguous and psychologically charged images.In *Panini’s Dog*, the animal subject is rendered through a minimalist composition and a synthetic painting style, in which the figure emerges immediately from the background. The small size of the canvas accentuates the intimate nature of the image, while the construction of the form already reveals that interest in distortion and in the tension between recognizability and alteration that would become central to the artist’s later work.The work thus bears witness to a significant moment in Condo’s early career, when his engagement with the European figurative tradition merged with his search for an autonomous and contemporary artistic language. Frame included