Paul McCarthy
1945–
In the groundbreaking performances that form a significant part of his artistic output, Paul McCarthy creates graphic and disturbing scenarios that imagine the dark underbelly of American popular culture and family life. As he once noted, “I’ve always had an interest in repression, guilt, sex, and shit.” McCarthy’s performances of the late 1960s and early 1970s announced the thematic preoccupations and unfettered physicality that the artist would develop in his transgressive later works. Some of his best-known actions were documented on video and in photographs; such imagery forms the basis of his Combination Photographs, a series of unique collages.
Sailor’s Meat and Sailor’s Meat, Europe Raw and Sailor’s Meat and Tubbing is a document of two well-known performances, Sailor’s Meat and Tubbing, which McCarthy loosely based on Russ Meyer’s soft-core film Europe in the Raw! (1963). In these works, the artist, wearing a blonde wig and black lingerie, smeared his body with ketchup and performed movements suggestive of copulation on a soiled bed and in a bathtub. Employing a range of props—including raw meat, skin cream, and bodily fluids— McCarthy delivered a pointed attack on commercial entertainment, consumption, and social conventions. Although such body-based actions characterized much of the video and performance work of the 1970s, the spectacular and often grotesque extremes to which McCarthy extends these gestures set his work apart from that of his contemporaries and continue to challenge viewers who encounter his art today.
Introduction
Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Wikidata identifier
Q221732
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 15, 2025.
Introduction
Provocative artist first known for his performance pieces dealing with taboos, childhood myths, and issues of human psyche and behavior, and in later career for his monumental sculptures and installations dealing with similar themes.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, installation artist, painter, performance artist, photographer, sculptor, video artist
ULAN identifier
500115653
Names
Paul McCarthy, Paul MacCarthy, Paul Mccarthy
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 15, 2025.
