Paul McCarthy: Tomato Head

Paul McCarthy is known for his wide-ranging and often provocative works, which encompass performance, photography, film, multimedia installations, sculpture, drawing and painting.

Whether absent or present, the human figure has been a constant in his work, either through the artist’s performances or the array of characters he creates to mix high and low culture and provoke an analysis of our fundamental beliefs. These playfully oversized characters and objects critique the worlds from which they are drawn: Hollywood, politics, philosophy, science, art, literature and television. McCarthy’s work, thus, locates the traumas lurking behind the stage set of the American Dream and identifies their counterparts in the art historical canon.

Tomato Head (1994), one of Paul McCarthy’s most important works from the 1990s, creates a life-size, cartoon-like figure that explores the relationship between modern culture, consumerism and innocence.

In this work, McCarthy plays out the allegories of a beloved and immediately recognizable cast of characters ranging from Santa Claus and Pinocchio to Mr. Potato Head and Popeye. Tomato Head (Green) (1994) is both a nomenclative and visual play on the children’s toy “Mr. Potato Head.” Developed in 1949, the original “Mr. Potato Head” was the first toy ever to be advertised on television and has remained popular even today. This post-war symbol of children’s entertainment symbolizes the beginning of a new consumer-driven era in America.

Much like “Mr. Potato Head,” Tomato Head (Green) has holes in place of eyes, nose, mouth and ears, where various pegs affixed with these human parts could be inserted randomly to give the figure different appendages or expressions. Unlike the toy, however, there are holes in its groin and anus where pegs could also be inserted. The work suggests an ability to construct gender identity: making these changes and substitutions allows the figure to play with potential self-iterations and explore all the possible identities available to it. However, even though the figure has several items at its disposal with which to auto-configure, these are a prefabricated, predetermined set. This limitation speaks to the restricted number of identities and lifestyle choices available to individuals in normative contemporary culture. Raw, visceral, and deeply disturbing, McCarthy’s work unmasks the vile, dysfunctional truth behind the American Dream. Through these twisted perversions of American cultural icons, McCarthy undermines a central theme of the American myth of equal opportunity–– the notion that one can realize oneself to the fullest degree regardless of origins and social status, is here invalidated through the message that society mandates one’s options of choice. Thus, the idea of freedom of choice is turned on its head.

Paul McCarthy: Tomato Head is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Post Human, and it is accompanied by drawings and sketches that allow audiences to discover the thought process behind one of McCarthy’s most significant artworks. The exhibition will also present Wolf-Pig (2024), an AI-generated video work that shows McCarthy’s latest interest and experimentation with new technologies.