- Paul McCarthy
Infobox Artist
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name = Paul McCarthy
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birthname =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1945|6|18|mf=y
location =Salt Lake City, Utah , U.S.
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
field =Performance Art
training =San Francisco Art Institute ,San Francisco University of Southern California , Los Angeles
movement =
works = Sailor's Meat from 1975, The Garden from 1991
patrons =
awards =Paul McCarthy (born
August 4 1945 inSalt Lake City, Utah ) is acontemporary artist who lives and works inLos Angeles, California .Life
McCarthy studied art at the
University of Utah in 1969. He went on to study at theSan Francisco Art Institute receiving a BFA in painting. In 1972 he studied film, video, and art at theUniversity of Southern California receiving an MFA. Since 1982 he has taught performance, video, installation, and performance art history at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles . McCarthy currently works mainly in video and sculpture.Originally formally trained as a painter, McCarthy's main interest lies in everyday activities and the mess created by them.cite journal |journal= |url = http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1520-281X%28200105%2923%3A2%3C10%3APMROM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T |accessdate=2007-05-27 |last = Klein |first = Jennie |volume = 23 |issue = 2 |month = May | year=2001 |pages=10–17 |title = Paul McCarthy: Rites of Masculinity |doi = 10.2307/3246503] Much of his work in the late 1960s, such as "Mountain Bowling" (1969) and "Hold an Apple in Your Armpit" (1970) are similar to the work of
Happenings founderAllen Kaprow , with whom McCarthy had a professional relationship.Work
Paul McCarthy misleadingly is often considered to be influenced by the
Viennese Actionism . Although by his own statement the happenings of the group were known to him in the 1970s, he sees a clear difference between the self-injurious actions of the Viennese and his own performances: "Vienna is not Los Angeles. My work came out of kids' television in Los Angeles. I didn' t go through Catholicism and World War II as a teenager, I didn' t live in a European environment. People make references to Viennese art without really questioning the fact that there is a big difference between ketchup and blood. I never thought of my work as shamanistic. My work is more about being a clown than a shaman." [Petersen, Magnus af:„Paul McCarthy´s 40 years of hard work-an attempt at a summary”, in: “Head Shop/Shop Head”, Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, 2006, p.20] In his early works, McCarthy sought to break the limitations of painting by using the body as a paintbrush or even canvas; later, he incorporated bodily fluids or food as substitutes into his works. In a 1974 video, "Painting, Wall Whip", he painted with his head and face, "smearing his body with paint and then with ketchup, mayonnaise or raw meat and, in one case, feces." [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1DE1330F936A25756C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
title=ART REVIEW: Work on the Wild Side, Raw, Rank and Morbid
author=Roberta Smith
date=May 15 1998
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2007-05-26] His work evolved from painting to transgressiveperformance art , psychosexual events intended to fly in the face of social convention, testing the emotional limits of both artist and viewer. An example of this is his 1976 piece "Class Fool", where McCarthy threw himself around a ketchup spattered classroom at theUniversity of California, San Diego until dazed and injured. He then vomited several times and inserted aBarbie doll into his rectum. The piece ended when the audience could no longer stand to watch his performance.McCarthy's work in the 1990s, such as "Painter" (1995), often seeks to undermine the idea of "the myth of artistic greatness" and attacks the perception of the heroic male artist.
Bibliography
*Blazwick, Iwona. "Paul McCarthy: Head Shop. Shop Head." Stockholm: Steidl/Moderna Museet, 2006.
*Bronfen, Elisabeth. "Paul McCarthy: Lala Land." Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2005.
*Glennie, Sarah. "Paul McCarthy at Tate Modern: Block Head and Daddies Big Head." London: Tate, 2003.
*McCarthy, Paul. "Paul McCarthy." London: Phaidon Press, 1996.
*Monk, Philip. "Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy: Collaborative Works." Toronto: Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre, 2000.
*Phillips, Lisa. "Paul McCarthy." Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2001.
*Sauerlander, Kathrin. "Paul McCarthy: Videos 1970-1997." Cologne: Walther König, 2004.References
*cite journal |last=Nielson |first=Emma |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2007 |month= |title=The World as Pirate’s Lair – Paul McCarthy’s LaLa Land, Parody Paradise
journal=Pulse Berlin |volume=|issue=Relation |pages= |id= |url=http://www.pulse-berlin.de/index.php?id=129 |accessdate= 2007-09-01 |quote= McCarthy has a predilection for American myths and icons. In most of his works, he takes the models and role models of that world and skewers them. Santa Claus, Pinocchio and the cowboy play just as important a role in the imagery as Bush or the Queen of England. Review of McCarthy’s 2007 "LaLa Land" exhibition at theWhitechapel Gallery , London , andHaus der Kunst , Munich.External links
* [http://davidhorvitz.com/pinocchio/ Paul McCarthy Pinnochio Video Performance]
* [http://www.frieze.com/shows/review/paul_mccarthys_low_life_slow_life_part_1/ frieze review of 'Low Life Slow Life']
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/arts/design/07gall.html?_r=1&st=cse&sq=paul+mc+carthy&scp=1&oref=slogin New York Times review]
* [http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?MCCARTHYP Paul McCarthy] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/paulmccarthy Tate Modern]
* [http://www.galerie-vallois.com/fr/artistes/kersels/oe.html Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois] , Paris, France
* [http://www.ghw.ch/artists/portrait.php?findexisting=1&artist_id=46 Hauser & Wirth] , London, UK
* [http://mccarthy.smak.be Paul McCarthy, HEAD SHOP/SHOP HEAD, 2007, SMAK, Ghent]
* [http://ubu.wfmu.org/video/McCarthy-Paul_Black-and-White-Tapes_1972.mp4 Black and White Tape] , 1972
* [http://d-sites.net/english/mccarthy.htm Paul McCarthy: the belated recognition of a misunderstood genius]
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