Paul McCarthy ranks among the most significant contemporary artists, known for his bold and provocative style that has profoundly shaped younger artists. Since the late 1960s, he has explored diverse mediums, gaining wider recognition in the art world from the 1990s onward. McCarthy’s work vividly critiques the ‘Western lifestyle,’ encompassing both the broader Western world and the specific cultural hub of Hollywood and America’s West Coast. His art has been bluntly described as raw, perverse, and ketchup-obsessed. Though he produces installations, sculptures, drawings, and videos, McCarthy is fundamentally a performance artist, achieving a breakthrough by recording his performances with multiple cameras and presenting them as video works. The 2007 retrospective at S.M.A.K. in Gent, a collaboration with Moderna Museet in Stockholm and AroS in Aarhus, featured new works created by McCarthy specifically for the Ghent exhibition that ran from 2 October 2007 to 16 February 2008.

The retrospective exhibition “Head Shop/Shop Head” (curated by Magnus af Petersens), shows for the first time a representative selection of his work in Europe, produced from 1966 to 2006.

This the 93rd episode in our VTV Classics (r3) series. First published on our website on 30. November 2007. VTV Classics (r3) highlights the treasures of VernissageTV’s huge archive. Back then published in Standard Definition, these classics are now re-mastered, re-edited and reissued in High Definition.

VTV Classics (r3): Paul McCarthy: Head Shop / Shop Head. Works 1966-2006 / S.M.A.K. Gent (2007)