George Condo shot this selfie and painted this logo and these coverlines for our cover. We see it as an ‘anti-cover’ ? a reaction to the slick imagery created by magazines and now universally imitated by social media
George Condo has been redefining art for more than four decades. As he unveils a body of work titled ?The Mad and the Lonely?, the artist speaks with Maryam Eisler about the human condition and society?s outcasts. Condo created this issue?s cover and logo for LUX, and showcases these paintings for the first time below
Maryam Eisler: Charles Bukowski once said, ?Only the crazy and the lonely can afford to be themselves?. Would you agree"

George Condo: I would agree with Bukowski. However, I would say the mad and the lonely are perhaps more victims of their own internal circumstances, as opposed to having the choice to make that distinction. George Condo at work in his studio
ME: Would you consider madness and loneliness as necessary precursors to the act of creation"

GC: I don?t think so. I imagine the mad and the lonely as a state of mind that comes over the artist in moments of joy and happiness as well. Suddenly, without warning, the subconscious kicks in and drives him, or at least myself, into dark corners within me to bring out reflections, or rather observations of those disparate souls in life who have no choice but to be outcast or peripheral to the everyday working-class person, and are unable to function within the const...