PAULMcCARTHY(b. 1945)Seven Masks.Signed "P. McCarthy" numbered and dated "1994" on the reverse of each. Seven Cibachrome prints mounted with aluminum.72 x 47 ⅞ in. (182.9 x 121.6 cm) each.Executed in 1994.Each work is an artist's proof from an edition of three plus two artist's proofs.Provenance
Art & Public, GenevaExhibited
Donaueschingen, Fürstenberg Sammlungen, Ahead of the 21st Century – the Pisces Collection, June 2002-October 2004, pp. 116-119, no. 84-90 (illustrated)Literature
P. McCarthy and F. Nilsen, Propo, Milan 1999, n.p (all illustrated);
U. Grosenick, ed., Ahead of the 21st Century – the Pisces Colletcion, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2002, pp. 116-119, no. 84-90 (illustrated);
Y. Aupetitallot, ed., Private View 1980-2000: Collection Pierre Huber, Zurich 2005, p. 196 (Monkey Man illustrated)Paul McCarthy has developed a signature brand of performance art that tested even the most expansive boundaries of taste and propriety. Inheriting the formal vocabulary of Pop Art, McCarthy literally ransacked the symbols of American consumer culture, incorporating popular foodstuffs, children's toys, and the spirit of B-grade horror films into his outrageous performances. By mutilating dolls, simulating bodily fluids and functions with condiments, and performing numerous other unsavory actions, the artist confronted his audiences with an extremely visceral form of theater. Never intended to simply shock, McCarthy's performances addressed the socializing power of consumer culture, suggesting that the airbrushed sense of reality we divine from its products leads to intellectual infantilization and sexual repression. By misusing these products in a perverse manner, the artist attempted to disrupt their power from the inside out. McCarthy staged his final live performance in 1984, and thereafter turned to sculpture, video, and installation art.

The present lot is comprised of seven large format color photographs that depict a collection of masks that McCarthy or his actors wore during his early performance based works. The large scale format of these pictures serves to emphasize and augment even the smallest details of the masks. Remnants of their use in the performances is prevalent in the surface features of each mask. The soiling, tearing, and overall distortion hint at and allude to the intensity and and energy with which McCarthy executed his early performances.