Paul McCarthy's Low Life Slow Life

Low Life Slow Life presents a diverse range of artists and artworks related to Paul McCarthy's memories of his own career. Curated by Paul McCarthy (*1945 in Salt Lake City), the two-part exhibition investigates his life as an artist—from his student years in Salt Lake City and San Francisco during the sixties to his years in Los Angeles from 1970 to the present—with an emphasis on the emergence of alternative performance practices, Conceptual art, and video art. His curatorial selections are eclectic and unconventional, deriving more from his personal recollections than from any historical, objective measure of artistic influence. Packaged as a recreation of a vintage of Tide detergent, this publication has been conceived to serve as an extension of the show. An artwork in itself, the book showcases a vast range of works that have influenced McCarthy’s career, presenting a personal map of his individual art history and philosophy.