PAUL MCCARTHY'S CARTOON PORNOGRAPHY

In a narrow space on Manhattan's Upper East side, Hauser & Wirth's new New York outpost seems ready to assert itself. The contemporary art gallery has just unveiled "White Snow", a new show of work by Paul McCarthy, a controversial American artist. On view are drawings inspired by the tale of Snow White, though McCarthy adds a very sexual and violent twist.

Gathered at the press opening was a crowd of posh uptowners--women with good hair and men with good shoes, everyone sipping coffee out of fine white china. Few seemed flustered by the brazen cartoon porn. The effect drew to mind the story of the emperor and his new clothes. Though the drawings hang beautifully--potent, provocative works against a gallery's white backdrop--we could have easily been examining the work of a psychopath. Ten minutes in I felt compelled to put my dainty cup down. These graphic drawings turned my stomach.

The first floor features McCarthy's drawings and collage on a grand scale. Over-tanned porn clippings compete with the clean lines and odd beauty of his juvenile scribbles, his well rendered princesses and dwarfs. In the background a six-hour loop plays of the artist banging and clanging at work in his huge, boxing ring-like studio. "You should hear the noises he made as he put up the artwork," said a gallery representative cheerfully. There is little pleasure in this voyeurism. Exposed to the sick exuberance of the artist's hand, I found myself stunned.

Upstairs, the drawings are smaller and less chaotic, making the dichotomy between the familiarity of Snow White and the strangeness of the imagery easier to handle. Here the line between grotesque and funny is thinner. There is even some fun to be had in seeing Disney characters gone wild, enjoying their reverie in the woods. It reminds of Disney storyboards laid out before computer animation: how easily elastic cartoon limbs move at the stroke of a pencil. Some of these drawings echo preparatory sketches of old masters, with their delicate compositions, and attention to the body's outline in space. (Only these bodies happen to be masturbating or enjoying a phallus for a nose.)

Still, I found myself wondering if I would like these drawings better if I didn't have to see Snow White perform oral sex so many times. But because these drawings are in a gallery and not a criminal file, such discomfort must be the point.

~ ARIEL RAMCHANDANI

Picture credit: [White Snow] Dwarf Heads (detail), 2009. Set of 7 drawings; pencil on vellum, tape