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IMAGE: Paul McCarthy, White Snow #3, 2012. Bronze. 98 x 77 x 74 inches. Edition 3 of 3, with 2 AP. Collection of The Contemporary Austin. Purchased with funds provided by the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation, 2017.1. Installation view, The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, Austin, Texas, 2014. Artwork © Paul McCarthy. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Brian Fitzsimmons.

Paul McCarthy, White Snow, #3

Currently on view at the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria

The sculptor and performance artist Paul McCarthy uses satire, dark humor, and intentionally confrontational taste to question the dominant belief systems and social conventions of American culture. In McCarthy's hands, children's storybook figures and cartoon characters turn naughty, forgoing happy endings for disturbing and often hilarious scenarios. White Snow #3 belongs to the artist's ongoing exploration–in sculpture, drawing, film, and installation–of the dark nineteenth-century German folk tale Snow White, and, in particular, Walt Disney's sugarcoated adaptation.

At first glance, McCarthy's Snow White is pristine and serenely contemplative: a classic fairy-tale princess at home in an idyllic rose garden. But a closer look reveals the familiar character to be part of an abstracted scene of debris and disorder, reminiscent of the chaos of the artist's studio. McCarthy's deceptively sweet figure equally attracts and repels those who encounter her, challenging viewers to reconsider preconceived notions about beauty, art, and pop culture.

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Jones Center
700 Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
512 453 5312
Laguna Gloria
3809 West 35th Street
Austin, Texas 78703
512 458 8191
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