Mickey Mouse

2010 - Drawing & Print (Drawing & Print)

Paul McCarthy

location: Los Angeles, California
year born: 1945
gender: male
nationality: American
home town: Salt Lake City, Utah

To make Mickey Mouse (2010), Paul McCarthy altered a found photograph—not of the iconic cartoon, but of a man costumed as Mickey. On his shoulders he supports an enormous false head, Mickey’s familiar face grinning with glossy eyes. The artist has marked out in heavy black the background of Cinderella’s castle. Robbed of his context, the character becomes the sole focus of the image, a subject of unusual scrutiny. Under this close examination, his torso and legs begin to seem strange—too human for his extremities—and his friendly wave starts to look less like that of a childhood hero and more like that of a politician. With McCarthy’s intervention, the famous mouse is upstaged by his own artificiality.


Known for his transgressive performance art pieces that often challenge social conventions, Paul McCarthy is undoubtedly one of the main figures in the West Coast contemporary art scene. Using different forms from pop culture as source material, McCarthy casts a critical look at American society and consumerism. With a particularly poignant sense humor, his works also investigate the intricacies of human psychology.


Colors:



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Forest Gathering N.2
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Gregory Crewdson

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Untitled
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Trisha Donnelly

2007

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Apartment on Cardboard
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Chris Johanson

2000

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I am Human, Abstract Foil, No Humans IV
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Chris Johanson

2004

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Forest Gathering N.2
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Gregory Crewdson

2005

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Untitled
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Trisha Donnelly

2007

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Studio Construct 51
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Barbara Kasten

2008

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Blind Spencer (Mirror)
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Douglas Gordon

2002

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L'Exposition Lunatique
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Mohamed Bourouissa

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Crafted Elegance: Hendrick’s Gin And Artist Boris De Beijer Unveil Limited Edition Cocktail Glasses
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Silencer #16 & #17
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2010

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Serengeti Green
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Phillip Maisel

2015

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Untitled (Men)
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Matt Lipps

2011

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Chu’u Mayaa
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Clarissa Tossin

2017

Clarissa Tossin’s film Ch’u Mayaa responds to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House (constructed 1919–21) in Los Angeles, an example of Mayan Revival architecture...

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Memory Mistake of the Eldridge Cleaver Pants
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Paul McCarthy

2008

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Mother Pig, Shushi Gallery, San Diego Performance
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Paul McCarthy

1983

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Chris Huen Sin-Kan

2013

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