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Paintings By Queen Victoria Head to Auction in London ↠

January 20th, 2023

A rare pair of floral paintings by Queen Victoria will go to auction next week, expecting prices of £8,000 and £10,000, Art News reports. 
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Michael Rakowitz Proposes Gift of Fourth Plinth Statue to British Museum in Exchange for Return of Assyrian Arifacts to Iraq ↠

January 20th, 2023

Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz is proposing that the British Museum return one of its ancient Assyrian treasures to Iraq in exchange for the donation of his fourth plinth sculpture to the UK. “As I pondered my gift to the nation of Great Britain, I began to fantasise that it could be attached to a second gift: the return of one of the British Museum’s lamassu to the country of Iraq, to replace what was destroyed by Daesh [or Islamic State],” he writes in an open letter.
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Art News Traces Continued Challenges of Repatriation at The Met ↠

January 20th, 2023

Art News has a piece this week discussing ongoing issues with repatriation at The Met, reviewing some disputed works still on view. “Once you know that someone is acquiring artifacts without looking too closely as a source, the first thing you should do is look deeper,” says Erin Thompson, an associate professor of art crime at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
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REFERENCE LIBRARY

Paul McCarthy

b. 1945
Lives and works in:

Los Angeles, CA

Represented by:

Hauser and Wirth

Education includes:

University of Utah BA, Salt Lake City
San Francisco Art Institute BFA
University of Southern California MFA, Los Angeles

McCarthy, who trained initially as a painter, works primarily in video and sculpture. His earlier art was influenced by Viennese Actionism, which strives to transcend the limitations of painting by using the body as paintbrush or canvas, and he eventually incorporated bodily fluids in his works.

His 1974 work Painting, Wall Whip featured a video of his headed painted red and his body covered in ketchup, mayonnaise, raw meat and in one instance, feces.

Class Fool, created in 1976, watched as he threw himself around a classroom covered in ketchup until he was too injured and dazed to continue, subsequently vomiting and then inserting a Barbie doll into his rectum.

Retrospective at S.M.A.K.,  Belgium, January – February 18, 2008 [ArtObserved]
Peter Paul Chocolates at Maccrone Gallery, Winter 2007 [ArtObserved]

Wikipedia Entry

More info about the artist coming soon.

Comments and suggestions: info@artobserved.com