"If you can say it... Why paint it?" A review of the key concepts of Contemporary Art

It's time for a new artwork of the month.

To quote Magnus af Petersens in his excellent essay 'Paul Mc Carthy - 40 years of work - an attempt of a summary':
Paul McCarthy’s works incorporate a sharp social critique, which focuses on social and cultural traumas rather than on private issues. This is the dark side of the American Dream, of the consumer society we all live in, even in Sweden and the rest of Western Europe. He also touches on a variety of existential issues. But he can also be exceedingly comical, although the laughter often sticks in your throat. He is a clown, a buffoon in the Rabelaisian sense.

40 years of work... Paul Mc Carthy has a long and quite prolific career that really starts (at least for the artworld) in the 60's. Back in the context, in the U.S., the legacy of Jackson Pollock, the 'action painting' abstract expressionism just reached its climax point (The emphasis is put on the action of painting rather than the result on the canvas), artists are more and more interested in 'speech act' or "a statement that is not solely descriptive but also constitutes some form of action". His works present also numerous minimalist references:

After settling down in los Angeles, Mc Carthy works on numerous performances and includes progressively cameras, first to film the performance but progressively as a part of it, as a parody of the Hollywood (a close neighbour) codes of production and shows everything that this industry of 'dream' holds back. The artist attacks many myths, from the perfect family in a performance with Mike Kelley called Family Tyranny in 1987, to the acts of painting and cooking in Bossy Burger (1991) see picture on the left. In this performance, Mc Carthy attempts to reveal the world's cruelty by underlining the bloody aspect of the cooking act, to discuss anything from entropy to social oppression or waste culture. In WGG Test, depicting a sailing party gone wrong, McCarthy questions the effects that violence and mutilation, both real and simulated, have on the viewer in contemporary culture (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C3yjIet2Ig Please be aware that these videos may hurt sensibilities). It bleeds, it is frenetic, the screams are unbearable, but it is clear and shown that this is all fake (presence of cameramen, displaying of the "trick" in some short sequences showing the real leg of the 'amputed' captain hidden under the stage...).
Again, like the corporal fluids, Mc Carthy throws out in the spectator's face what he/she does not want to see, because it is a part of history or intimity that everyone wants to forget! But WHY WHY WHY????!!!!! And if you run out of a Paul Mc Carthy exhibition, screaming this single 3 letters word... Then it is a total success. Why do we want to forget all these concepts? We do want to forget, now it's a fact and by being confronted face-to-face with Paul Mc Carthy abominations confirms that statement. One step further, he tends to use actual cinematographic settings used in famous mainstream hollywood productions, movies or series.

The Painter- Paul Mc Carthy

And that is exactly what Mc Carthy's art is about!! It stands to question the formative power of social and political society. You really thought that pirates were sexy and totally disapeared? If Hollywood or Disneyland does show us a glamour image of the pirates, Mc Carthy recreates the attraction "Pirates of the Carribeans" and replaces Johnny Depp by thirty actors, wearing oversize carnival heads, simulating the invasion of a village, violence, mutilation, rape and the public sale of the village women. Probably far more realistic than the Hollywood version. One step further, beyond the farce, the masks and the grotesque spoof horror movie scenes, McCarthy's Pirate work makes also some references to the US invasion of Iraq, some scenes have been said to allude clearly to Abu Ghraib and the abuse of prisoners. Once again Mc Carthy demonstrates that we invent this new pirates dream, to hold back a certain reality of a 'human' violence (opposed to imaginary).

Mc Carthy however, offers you, the visitor, a precious gift: the ability of questioning yourself and all these mental barriers and taboos... It is a "wether you like it or not , this is there, in you, do not forget it!"

So here is my artwork of the month:

The exhibition Shop head/head shop Works 1966-2006

The foreword for the catalogue “Paul McCarthy: Head Shop/Shop Head” starts with eleven questions: The physical formalism of minimalism, or the exuberant materialism of pop art? Comic performance or existential actionism? More or less? In jest or in dead earnest? Criticism or acceptance? Sadism or love? Drawing? Sculpture? Film? Photography? Performance? Paul McCarthy himself says “You may understand my actions as vented culture. You may understand my action as vented fear.”The retrospective exhibition “Head Shop/Shop Head“ (curated by Magnus af Petersens), which is being held in association with Moderna Museet in Stockholm and ARoS in Aarhus, shows for the first time a representative selection of his work in Europe, produced from 1966 to 2006. McCarthy also made a series of new works especially for S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst. The exhibition of 40 years of McCarthy’s work will be held until 17 February 2008. By vtv correspondent Thom de Bock. PS: See the video about the exhibition at Galerie Hauser & Wirth in June 2007 which presented a series of photo portfolios related to the large-scale projects Paul and Damon McCarthy produced in recent years.

Here is the trailer of the exhibition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXuFW4vm3EM&NR=1

On this next link you will find an excellent interview of the artist and several pictures of an exhibition that took place in Kopenhagen, which featured many of the artworks currently exhibited in Ghent (Belgium). http://www.kopenhagen.dk/interviews/interviews/interview_paul_mccarthy/