Image of Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy

While still a student, Paul McCarthy threw himself out of a second floor window in a performance/action, emulating Yves Klein's legendary "Leap into the Void." McCarthy was an influential figure in the Southern California art and performance scene for decades before achieving international recognition. His performance work in the late 1970s explored areas of Dionysian and shamanistic initiation rituals, as well as the body and sexuality. The intensity of these performances, which often included the graphic depiction of taboo subjects, eventually led to his use of video and installation as primary media.  Mining the depths of the family and childhood via kitsch and pop cultural detritus, the body and sexuality, and an often outrageous theatricality, McCarthy's works inhabit a violent landscape of dysfunction and trauma. In many of his works, he adopts a performance persona that appears crazed, witch-like, or infantile. McCarthy's works often involve liquids, from bodily fluids to paint; one performance involved mixing his own blood with food, an obsessive gesture that is simulated in Family Tyranny.  In the late 1980s, McCarthy began using film and television sets as elements in video/performance installations. Often these elaborate fabrications involved the restaging of culturally-charged myths and icons, such as Heidi and Pinocchio, in the context of family psychodramas, Hollywood genres, and mass media.


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Born:
Aug 4, 1945 In Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Movie/TV Credits:
17
First Appeared:
In the movie The Black Panther 1977-12-26
Latest Project:
Movie 24 Hour Sunset 2023-09-01
Known For
Poster of DADDA - Poodle House Saloon
Poster of Heidi: Midlife Crisis Trauma Center and Negative Media-Engram Abreaction Release Zone
Poster of Cultural Soup
Poster of Family Tyranny (Modeling and Molding)
Filmography
Movie 24 Hour Sunset 2023-09-01
Movie DADDA - Poodle House Saloon Donald Duck 2019-02-10
Movie Feuer & Flamme 2014-04-25
Movie Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away Parole Officer 2011-02-21
Series At Home With Julia Kevin Rudd 2011-09-07
Series Double Take Various Characters 2009-07-23
Series Comedy Inc. 2003-02-01
Series Totally Full Frontal Various 1998-05-13
Movie Heidi: Midlife Crisis Trauma Center and Negative Media-Engram Abreaction Release Zone 1992-10-30
Movie Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. Hairdresser 1991-01-01
Movie Cultural Soup 1987-01-01
Movie Family Tyranny (Modeling and Molding) Father 1987-01-01
Series Late Expectations George Jackson 1987-04-07
Movie Torment Officer Gilchrist 1986-04-01
Movie The Woman Who Married Clark Gable Boy 1985-08-28
Series Tucker's Luck Tommy Watson 1983-03-10
Movie The Black Panther 1977-12-26