Paul Mccarthy

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 deployed: 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.

Ralph Rugoff is Director of the Hayward Gallery in London. Kristine Stiles is Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University. Giacinto Di Pietrantonio is Director of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo.