Paul McCarthy Can't Find Home for Demented Disney

Paul McCarthy, WS White Snow, 2013. Photo: James Ewing 

Paul McCarthy is throwing out "one of his greatest works" because no museum is able to house it. The Art Newspaper reports on the fate of WS White Snow (2013), a transgressive multimedia installation that was a succès de scandale when shown at New York's Park Avenue Armory in 2013. McCarthy played Walt Disney (with undertones of Hitler) engaging in an orgy with Snow White and her dwarves. Incorporating a forest of fake trees, a 3/4-scale replica of McCarthy's childhood home, and a 7-hour, mural-size video, WS White Snow requires as much as 17,000 sf when installed. In 2023 the artist convened a meeting of museum curators and directors from the Getty, MOCA, the Hammer, and LACMA, hoping that one institution might acquire the piece. Nothing came of that.

Paul and son/collaborator Damon McCarthy are now packing up parts of the installation while throwing out others. Many of styrofoam trees and other components were originally purchased from Hollywood prop houses and, in a form of cultural recycling, may be sold back there. 

Paul McCarthy, WS White Snow, 2013. Photo: James Ewing
Paul McCarthy, WS White Snow, 2013. Photo: James Ewing


Comments

Anonymous said…
I don’t understand why artists create such huge pieces especially with material that is ephemeral? Museums have limited space as it is. Also it’s not like visitors would enjoy their senses assaulted by a Paul McCarthy piece. His “art” is too challenging and gross (for lack of a better word) for most people.
Anonymous said…
Coincides with the NY Times posting an article this week about just how dysfunctional the Disney Company has become.

LA-based institutions like LACMA, MOCA and the Hammer may have a tougher time in the future when the few corporate entities still remaining in the LA area are fumbling and stumbling.
Anonymous said…
Your comments literally has nothing to do with the article
Anonymous said…
This work was not worthy of a museum collection. As ideology critique, it lacks imagination. It's Duchamp's Large Glass without the "glass."
--- J. Garcin
Anonymous said…
Also coincides with a new, non-animated version of Snow White from the Disney Company. The main character will be portrayed by a Latina actress, the character of the prince is gone (his kissing Snow White is now perceived as sexual harassment?!), Snow White apparently bosses around the dwarfs (girl power?!), who are CGI instead of being played by real-life human little people (ban the exploiting of midgets?!).

In effect, in the category of the ludicrous, the Disney Co. is one upping artist Paul McCarthy. Or it's now life imitating art.

The new LACMA building hopefully won't be a version of that, but for a museum. Or windows instead of artworks!, contemporary art instead of Renaissance art!
I, myself, love windows in museums. Not only for the natural light (see the Met's completed skylight project for the European Paintings galleries; but also for the views. Too much intense looking at pictures overstimulates my senses. I need a rest cure, to come back to Earth...clouds and blue sky are a tonic for me.
Anonymous said…
The MAGA art critic is back. Disney and LACMA are eating the cats...
Anonymous said…
> I, myself, love windows in museums.

Which are admittedly not too common in most older ones. I didn't see too many windows in, for example, the Louvre. However, the reduced wall space for display will be offset by what I imagine will be the TikTok/Instagram popularity of the Geffen/Govan/Zumthor building. And I don't say that with sarcasm but with seriousness.

Again, I recall thinking the Urban Lights installation (by Chris Urban) would be less effective for PR purposes than, say, a water feature is, such as the rebuilt fountain in front of the Metropolitan.