PAUL MCCARTHY (B. 1945) White Snow, Balloon Dog

sealed PVC polyvinyl chloride plastic and inflation pump 157.5 x 83.8 x 208.3 cm executed in 2013 Edition of 40 unique variants and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist Provenance: Hauser & Wirth, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner Phillips New York, Modern & Contemporary Art, 20 September 2016, Lot 106 Private collection Paul McCarthy is a major American contemporary artist whose provocative and multidisciplinary practice encompasses performance, sculpture, installation, video and painting. Since the late 1960s, he has challenged conventional notions of art, popular culture and social behaviour through works that often combine humour, absurdity, parody and deliberate excess. Drawing extensively on American consumer culture, Hollywood, advertising and domestic imagery, McCarthy frequently transforms familiar objects and symbols into unsettling or theatrical forms. His practice explores themes of identity, desire, violence and the mechanisms of popular entertainment, often deliberately blurring the boundaries between art and everyday life. McCarthy has exhibited extensively at leading international institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern and Centre Pompidou. His influential body of work has established him as a key figure in post-war and contemporary art.