Mom! Paul broke my doll!

Mom! Paul broke my doll!
This nice doll looking at us and smiling like a fun cartoon is actually Paul McCarthy’s work (1945, Salt Lake City, USA) Children’s Anatomical Educational Figure of c.1990.
This huge doll catches our attention with its pleasant look: it is only later that it is possible to notice a gash on its belly with innards coming out.
Overflowing with black humor, the artist is using this doll as a character-archetype to investigate and portray the way adults deal with the theme of violence and the uses of body. By talking to young people, he is reversing the viewpoint: child desire for exploring secrets is contrasting with the playful and pleasant side of the character.
McCarthy’s will to investigate the inside of things – as it is in this case with the doll’s innards – comes from minimalist influences. Although he was never part of the minimalist phenomenon, McCarthy admits that his interest in the inside of things comes from those influences grasped during the first years of his career, when Minimalism was at its peak.