Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy (b. 1945) is reckoned to be one of our era’s most influential artists. Based in Los Angeles, he works with video, sculpture and installations, and his characteristic expression reveals a fascination for things grotesque and surreal.

In early works, McCarthy sought to overcome the limitations of painting by using his own body as if it were a paintbrush or a canvas. He then began using foodstuffs as stand-ins for paint and body fluids in his performances. He became more widely known in 1972 with the performance Painting Face Down – White Line. To perform the work, he slithered along the floor and created a long white line with his body. This was an ironic comment on the Frenchman Yves Klein’s Anthropometries from the 1960s.

In McCarthy’s performance videos, he lampoons forms of social behavior through satirical portrayals. The American entertainment industry, especially popular children’s television programs and cooking shows, provides the starting point for many of these portrayals, and while they are somehow comparable to the genre of fables or fairy tales, inspiration for them stems from more trivial activities. At the same time McCarthy is also influenced by earlier performance art, not least the pioneering happenings of Allan Kaprow.

McCarthy’s productions are often charged with an undercurrent of sex and violence, albeit symbolic in character. Although the violence is 'cartoonish', usually directed at something inanimate, this is not the case in the exhibited video Rocky (1976), where the artist attacks his own body. As one of his earliest works, it shows him naked, embroiled in a loud and intense boxing match with himself. Besides the obvious connection to Sylvester Stallone’s films, this video alludes to the myth of the artist engaged in an inner battle. McCarthy is known for challenging our perception of disgusting and abominable acts and gladly uses chocolate, ketchup, mayonnaise and the like to give the impression of blood and body fluids. Towards the end of the video the artist defeats himself and collapses in exhaustion beyond the edge of the picture. Some critics have judged McCarthy’s performances to be silly and naïve, and even we can agree that some of them seem to end prematurely. Everything is crude, slapstick and exaggerated, all of which contributes to the burlesque character. Meanwhile, they are never without a critical edge.

Since the 1990s McCarthy has worked a great deal with sculpture, in particular, monumental inflatables such as Blockhead and Daddies Bighead (2003). These sculptures are loosely based on Pinocchio and Disney figures. Again, we see how McCarthy finds his artistic material in the universe of popular culture, fables and fairy tales and create somewhat humorous yet disturbing situations that parody and comment on human communication and interaction.

BL