PAUL McCARTHY (b. 1945) Santa Long Neck. Paint

Provenance
Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York

Essay
"With the Gradual introduction of new possibilities for linking spatial and behavioral concerns. McCarthy's work over the past few years has achieved a conviction and acute grasp of psychic trauma which few if any of his contemporaries can match. There is a shortage of artist's willing to peer closely at the dark under-side of the American Psyche, but McCarthy does so from a unique perspective; he does not believe himself to be separate from what he perceives. The images and texts [and sculptures in the case of the present lot] that suffuse his art are drawn directly from both the media-generated idealsof behavior and the depths of his own psyche; his characters and settings are a universal repository of the fears, obsessions, and conflicts that face the human species at an evolutionary crossroads. The irony made clear by McCarthy's art is that we have reached a point where people can be instantly in touch with the furthest reaches of the planet, yet we are beset by increasing sectarian violence, prejudice, intolerance, and mutually assured ignorance or what makes us different from one another and from other species" (L. Phillips, Paul McCarthy, New York 2000, p. 63).

Without parroting the triumphalist call that has brought us repeatedly to the brink of extinction, McCarthy lets us know how seductive the call to cultural entropy really is. He shows us sides of the American character few of us can endure at sustained close quarters, and he does so at enormous risk. Rather than offer yet another vision of liberation through attainment, he reveals the horror that lies on the other side of the mirror of American strength and prosperity. One of the key implications of his work is that this entire façade of well being and harmony must be shattered before we can ever articulate a credible vision of who we really are. It is a far from impossible task, but it requires coming face to face with a reality that is as terrifying as its opposite is seductive. (ibid)