Paul McCarthy

More about the book

Paul McCarthy creates sculptures figuring animal/vegetable/human hybrids, Disney-esque installations and slapstick performances in weird evocations of a national subconscious. The psycho-sexual desires and anxieties induced by the media and the built environment of contemporary America emerge in his collisions of plastic prosthetics and simulated body fluids. These have been variously through live actions, often documented on video, and more recently in outsized and artificial rural environments. Ralph Rugoff surveys McCarthy's installations and sculptures since the early-1970s, while Kristine Stiles, an expert on performance, talks with the artist about his performance work. Giacinto Di Pietrantonio focuses on McCarthy's video/installation, "Pinocchio Pipehouse Householddilemma". The artist has juxtaposed a text by Jean-Paul Sartre with a screenplay from the TV serial "Bonanza", and the final section, the artist's writings, contains notes for performances and videos. The book is part of a series of studies of important artists of the late-20th century. Each title offers a comprehensive survey of the artist's work, providing analyses and multiple perspectives on contemporary art and its inspiration.