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| 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.
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| Paul McCarthy, WS White Snow, 2013. Photo: James Ewing |
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| Paul McCarthy, WS White Snow, 2013. Photo: James Ewing |
Comments
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.
--- J. Garcin
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!
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.