Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Also recorded as Paul Mccarthy · Paul MacCarthy
Paul McCarthy

Patrick Gruban · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Paul McCarthy
- Born
- 4 August 1945
- Birthplace
- Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
- Field
- * Performance art
- Training
- * San Francisco Art Institute
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- painter · sculptor · illustrator · video artist · installation artist · television producer · performance artist · architectural drafter · photographer · artist
- Fields
- figurative art · conceptual art
- Movements
- abject art
- Known for
- Tree · Santa Claus
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Paul McCarthy was an American architectural drafter, artist and illustrator, among other activities.
The architectural drafter worked in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Paul McCarthy was associated with abject art.
Works include Santa Claus and Tree. Genres include conceptual art and figurative art.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q221732 · wikipedia · Paul McCarthy
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Paul McCarthy • Born — 4 August 1945 • Birthplace — Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. • Field — * Performance art • sculpture • Training — * San Francisco Art Institute • University of Southern California • Notable Works — * Sailor's Meat (1975) • The Garden (1991) • Bossy Burger (1991) • Santa Claus (2001) • Tree (2014)
Life
Life
McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued to study at the University of Utah until 1969. He went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute, receiving a BFA in painting. In 1972 he studied film, video, and art at the University of Southern California, receiving an MFA. From 1982 to 2002 he taught performance, video, installation, and performance art history at the University of California, Los Angeles. McCarthy currently works mainly in video and sculpture. Originally formally trained as a painter, McCarthy's main interest lies in everyday activities and the mess created by them. Much of his work in the late 1960s, such as Mountain Bowling (1969) and Hold an Apple in Your Armpit (1970), are similar to the work of Happenings founder Allan Kaprow, with whom McCarthy had a professional relationship. McCarthy's Altadena home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, one of the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.
Work
Work
• Illustration — Sweet Brown Snail by Jason Rhoades and Paul McCarthy at the Bavariapark and the Verkehrszentrum of the Deutsches Museum in Munich • Illustration — Boxhead (2001), collection of the Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim in Brumadinho/Brazil • Illustration — Santa Claus (2001) on the Eendrachtsplein in Rotterdam, the Netherlands McCarthy's works include performance, sculpture, installation, film, and "painting as action". His points of reference are rooted, on the one hand, in things typically American, such as Disneyland, B-Movies, Soap Operas and Comics – he is a critical analyst of the mass media and consumer-driven American society and its hypocrisy, double standards, and repression. On the other hand, it is European avant-garde art that has had the most influence on his artistic form language. Such influences include the Lost Art Movement, Joseph Beuys, Sigmund Freud, Samuel Beckett, and the Viennese Actionism. Although by his own statement the happenings of the Viennese Actionists were known to him in the 1970s, he sees a clear difference between the actions of the Viennese and his own performances: In his early works, McCarthy sought to break the limitations of painting by using the body as a paintbrush or even canvas; later, he incorporated bodily fluids or food as substitutes into his works. In a 1974 video, Sauce, he painted with his head and face, "smearing his body with paint and then with ketchup, mayonnaise or raw meat and, in one case, feces." This clearly resembled the work of Vienna actionist Günter Brus. Similarly, his work evolved from painting to transgressive performance art, psychosexual events intended to fly in the face of social convention, testing the emotional limits of both artist and viewer. An example of this is his 1976 piece Class Fool, where McCarthy threw himself around a ketchup-spattered classroom at the University of California, San Diego until dazed and self-injured. He then vomited several times and inserted a Barbie doll into his rectum. The piece ended when the audience could no longer stand to watch his performance. Concerned that the University's custodians would have to clean up the mess, graduate students Virginia Maksymowicz and Blaise Tobia, along with art historian Moira Roth, spent several hours cleaning up the ketchup and vomit. Maksymowicz can be seen in the rear left of a documentary photo of the event. McCarthy's works in the 1990s, such as Bossy Burger (1991) and Painter (1995), often seeks to undermine the idea of "the myth of artistic greatness" and attacks the perception of the heroic male artist. McCarthy's transfixion with Johanna Spyri's novel Heidi led to his 1992 video and installation Heidi: Midlife Crisis Trauma Center and Negative Media-Engram Abreaction Release Zone, on which he collaborated with Mike Kelley. Caribbean Pirates (2001–05), alludes to the Johnny Depp film franchise and to the Disneyland attraction.
Complex Shit
Complex Shit
During the summer of 2008, Paul McCarthy's inflatable Complex Shit, installed on the grounds of the Paul Klee Centre in Bern, Switzerland, took off in a wind, bringing down a power line, breaking a greenhouse window and a window at a children's home. This incident was widely reported internationally via news outlets in several languages with headlines like "Huge turd catastrophe for museum" and "Up in the sky: is it a turd or a plane?"
Santa Claus
Santa Claus
McCarthy has created several Christmas-themed works. Through them, he combined his impressions of the dismal aesthetic and the real meaning of Christmas. In 2001, he created Santa Claus for the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Originally, it was intended to be placed next to the concert hall at the locally famous "Schouwburgplein" square, but it never was. This was due to controversies around the statue: The work is seen by many citizens as having sexual connotations, and, therefore it also is colloquially called "Kabouter Buttplug" and "Butt plug Gnome". Its original location was rejected by citizens and retailers, as well as several other proposed locations. On November 28, 2008, it did, however, receive a permanent destination on the Eendrachtsplein square, within a walkway-of-statues project.
White Snow
White Snow
In November 2009, an exhibition called "White Snow" was held at Hauser & Wirth New York, featuring McCarthy's mixed-media works, centered on the character Snow White from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Tree
Tree
In October 2014, McCarthy unveiled Tree in Place Vendôme in Paris. The inflatable sculpture, standing 24 meters tall, was said to resemble a large green butt plug. This caused controversy among citizens, who believed their historic square had been sullied. Within two days the piece had been deflated by someone, and McCarthy stated that he did not want it to be repaired or replaced. He also admitted to Le Monde that its butt plug shape was deliberate, and a "joke". In 2016 he again exhibited Tree at Paramount Ranch 3, amongst the trees and rolling hills of the Santa Monica Mountains, where the reception was positive and visitors "reveled in its absurdist glory".
Tomato Head
Tomato Head
In 1994, McCarthy made one of his most important works of the 1990s, Tomato Head. McCarthy created a life size comic figure exploring the relationship between modern culture, innocence and consumerism. In a way this piece pays homage to the iconic children's toy Mr. Potato Head as McCarthy's human figure has an enlarged cartoonish red tomato as its head, transforming a child's toy into a sinister work of art.
Career and activity
Career and activity
Paul McCarthy worked in performance art, art of sculpture, video art, installation art and art of drawing. His work is associated with abject art. He was employed by University of California, Los Angeles. Recorded position is professor emeritus. He belonged to Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley and Mike Bouchet & Paul Mccarthy. He worked at Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Identity
Identity
Paul McCarthy is recorded with the occupation television producer. Recorded with the occupation installation artist. Classed in the genre figurative art. Classed in the genre conceptual art. Recorded as painter, sculptor, illustrator and video artist.

art basel 41 2010
Art Comments
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1945
Paul McCarthy born at Salt Lake City.
1998
Mike Kelley/Paul McCarthy: 23.9.-8. 11.1998 is dated 1998.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Paul McCarthy”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q221732: Paul McCarthy
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
scholarly publication
- Mccarthy, Paul, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2011
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Cotter, Holland. 'Paul McCarthy: WS' Turns a Magic Mirror on Excess. The New York Times. June 27, 2013.
- 2.Klein, Jennie. Paul McCarthy: Rites of Masculinity. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 23. 2. 10–17. May 2001. 10.2307/3246503.
- 3.Moffitt, Evan. Landmarks Destroyed, Masterpieces Incinerated, Communities Razed: How the LA Fires Ravaged Culture. The Guardian. January 21, 2025.
- 4.Hoffmann, Jens. Paul McCarthy's Low Life Slow Life. Hatje Cantz Verlag. 2010. 978-3-7757-2573-6.
- 5.Paul McCarthy on the Messy, Lonely Truth Behind How He Got His Start as an Artist. Artspace.
- 6.Petersen, Magnus af. Head Shop/Shop Head. Steidl Verlag. 20. 2006. 978-3-86521-300-6.
- 7.Paul McCarthy: "Sauce" (1974). YouTube cbignore.
- 8.Smith, Roberta. Art Review: Work on the Wild Side, Raw, Rank and Morbid. The New York Times. May 15, 1998.
- 9.Routledge Press. Live Art in LA: Performance in Southern California, 1970–1983. 73. 2012. 978-0-415-68422-4.
- 10.Projects 51: Paul McCarthy. MoMA.
- 11.Laughing His Way Into Character. Art21.
- 12.HEIDI (Mike Kelley & Paul McCarthy, 1992). Vimeo. January 13, 2013.
- 13.Holzwarth, Hans W. 100 Contemporary Artists A–Z. Taschen. 366–371. 2009. 978-3-8365-1490-3.
- 14.Complex Shit Causes Museum Chaos. The Australian. August 12, 2008.
- 15.Huge Turd Catastrophe for Museum. Metro. August 12, 2008.
- 16.Up in the Sky: Is It a Turd? Is It a Plane?. The Sydney Morning Herald. August 13, 2008.
- 17.Nielson, Emma. The World as Pirate's Lair – Paul McCarthy's LaLa Land, Parody Paradise. Pulse Berlin. Relation. 2007.
- 18.Zebracki, Martin. Engaging Geographies of Public Art: Indwellers, the 'Butt Plug Gnome' and Their Locale. Social & Cultural Geography. 13. 7. 735–758. 2012. 10.1080/14649365.2012.723735.
- 19.Santa Claus Finds A Permanent New Home In Rotterdam. TAXI. November 28, 2008.
- 20.Kennedy, Randy. Paul McCarthy, the Demented Imagineer. The New York Times. May 10, 2013.
- 21.Jardonnet, Emmanuelle. McCarthy agressé pour l'érection d'un arbre de Noël ambigu, place Vendôme. Le Monde. October 17, 2014.
- 22.Chazan, David. Vandals Deflate Giant 'Sex Toy' Sculpture in Paris. The Daily Telegraph. October 18, 2014.
- 23.On Exhibit: Paul McCarthy's Plug Life at Paramount Ranch. Supertouch. February 1, 2016.
- 24.Paul McCarthy: Tomato Head (Green), 1994. Art Basel.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 11
- Rugoff, Ralph. Paul McCarthy. Phaidon Press. 2016.
- Blazwick, Iwona. Paul McCarthy: Head Shop. Shop Head. Steidl/Moderna Museet. 2006.
- Bronfen, Elisabeth. Paul McCarthy: Lala Land. Hatje Cantz. 2005.
- Taschen. Art Now. 184–187. 2005. 978-3-8228-4093-1.
- Sauerlander, Kathrin. Paul McCarthy: Videos 1970-1997. Walther König. 2004.
- Glennie, Sarah. Paul McCarthy at Tate Modern: Block Head and Daddies Big Head. Tate. 2003.
- Phillips, Lisa. Paul McCarthy. Hatje Cantz Publishers. 2001.
- Monk, Philip. Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy: Collaborative Works. Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at Harbourfront Centre. 2000.
- Rugoff, Ralph. Paul McCarthy. Phaidon Press. 1996.
- Sherer, Daniel. Heidi on the Loos. Ornament and Crime in Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy's Heidi. PIN-UP. 3. 59–62. 2008.
- Zebracki, Martin. Engaging Geographies of Public Art: Indwellers, the 'Butt Plug Gnome' and Their Locale. Social & Cultural Geography. 13. 7. 735–758. 2012. 10.1080/14649365.2012.723735.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Mccarthy, Paul, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q221732: Paul McCarthyWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolved
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