A solo exhibition of Paul McCarthy’s work at one of the top galleries in Los Angeles is a newsworthy event. The anticipation of seeing work by this hometown hero turned international art star is made more exciting by the promise of Hauser Wirth Los Angeles. This is the sprawling downtown venue with pretenses of museum-level exhibitions but carrying price tags for the one percent.
A few months past its one year anniversary, the space made waves when it unceremoniously dumped Southern California curatorial legend Paul Schimmel a week after his curated retrospective for Jason Rhoades. Nobody who knows why for sure is talking, still. The promise of the original Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, beyond its dramatic physical grounds, was the combination of HW’s access to world-class art collaborating with Schimmel himself, arguably the world’s greatest living curator.
And so the anticipation for a show by a great artist is made slightly titillating to see if a world class gallery can function minus its local celebrity. Is curating more complex for a Swiss company than building a cuckoo clock? Well it turns out that yes, yes it is. Maybe it cannot be done here when it will always be scrutinized thru the context of “What Would Schimmel Do?”.
Installation view of Paul McCarthy’s 2017 exhibition at Hauser Wirth Los Angeles
Despite this, the small show of big work is worth a look. The Paul McCarthy exhibit, good as it may be, reveals that Hauser and Wirth minus Schimmel equals big art fair art with no sensitivity to context, history or even basic placement. The McCarthy exhibit is work that has already been displayed (in 2013!!!) in New York and Seattle. It is inventory. The buzz around Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel was that a commercial gallery could compete with museums for delivering the most rigorously challenging shows. The difference minus Paul Schimmel was noticeable. And not in a good way. Imagine if MOCA became Wal-Mart overnight. Kinda like that.
Installation view of Paul McCarthy’s 2017 exhibition at Hauser Wirth Los Angeles
The McCarthy exhibit is confined to one large gallery. Other real estate in the sprawling complex is devoted to a large exhibition of Polish sculptor Monika Sosnowska (a slick, yet dry version of Jannis Kounellis with an affinity for architecture). Forgive one if the hype around HWLA makes it a safe assumption that a Paul McCarthy show there means that there will be some combination of the scholarly and the spectacle… but alas, while there are compelling Paul McCarthy objects on view from two series, there is nothing new here and there is the distinct feeling there is nothing more.
(Left) Paul McCarthy at Hauser Wirth Los Angeles, June 2017 (Right) McCarthy at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, February 2017
A week prior to Schimmel’s sacking he spoke at the press preview for the Jason Rhoades show he’d just curated, as did McCarthy, who gave an impassioned, intricate and moving soliloquy on the departed installation artist. For his own show, McCarthy showed up to the press event shorn of his trademark beard and spoke briefly about the mere material process of fabricating the giant “White Snow” spinoffs in oak via a CNC machine. Something seemed missing. In the gallery spaces hosting the Sosnowska show one might expect a more vast look into McCarthy’s oeuvre or the debut of new work; in the abrupt remarks, in the sea of uncurated, oversized and (assumed to be as of yet) unsold merchandise, and on the tongues of the press gaggle in attendance, Paul Schimmel was everywhere at Hauser and Wirth because he was nowhere to be found.
MONIKA SOSNOWSKA and PAUL MCCARTHY’s “WS Spinoffs, Wood Statues and Brown Rothkos” both open July 1 and run thru September 17 at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles