Paul McCarthy: WS SC, Hauser & Wirth

This Autumn, Hauser & Wirth present LA-based artist Paul McCarthy’s latest collection of acrylic and collage paintings. McCarthy, who turns 70 this year, has long been one of the most prominent figures on the contemporary art scene, with critics noting that he explores the ‘underbelly of the American dream’ and radically deconstructs the cheerful façade of consumer culture.
His practice
Cartoons, comics, Disney, politics and celebrity culture are all attacked or satirized by McCarthy. He strangely merges all of these categories of mass media together, creating something unexpected, which questions the kind of voyeurism we all participate in so as to engage with mass culture. McCarthy desires his spectator to feel unsettled and uncomfortable. 
The Exhibition
McCarthy’s satisfaction in disturbing his audiences began with his performance pieces in the 1970’s, within which he would use materials such as excrement, blood and vomit to repulse his audience. It was about endurance - how long could the audience stand and watch his nauseating behaviour before leaving.
Perhaps thankfully, Hauser & Wirth’s exhibition will show some of his more toned-down works. Most excitingly, this will be Paul McCarthy's first painting exhibition since the 1980s and will focus on his WS and Stagecoach projects. Whilst static paint on canvas may seem to offer a more palatable viewing experience, the content of these works is equally as sensational as earlier performances, focusing on oral sex and, once again, excrement (depicted, not real).  With a varied, rough and lose application of paint McCarthy uses broad washes of pastels that dissolve lines and merge forms. His playful and irreverent handling of the painting’s surface makes these pieces charmingly crude in both form and content.