Paul Cadmus

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Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 - December 12, 1999) was an artist born in New York City. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures. His works combined elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism. He painted with egg tempera, a medium which had been associated with Greek icons.

In 1934 he painted The Fleet's In! while working for the Public Works of Art Project of the WPA. This painting, featuring carousing sailors, women, and a homosexual man, was the subject of a public outcry and was removed from exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery. The publicity helped to launch his career. He worked in commercial illustration as well, but Jared French, another tempera artist who befriended him and became his lover, convinced him to devote himself completely to fine art.^[1]

He lived with his companion of 35 years, Jon Anderson, who was a subject of many of his works.

In 1999 he died in his home in Weston, Connecticut due to advanced age, just five days short of his 95^th birthday.

Cadmus's sister, Fidelma, was the wife of philanthropist and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein.

Contents 1 Quotes 2 Education 3 List of works 4 Biographical Works 5 Exhibitions 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Quotes

• "Gayness is not the raison d'être of my work."
• "As an unknown artist at the time, I benefited from the censorship controversy -- and I am eternally grateful to that offended admiral."

[edit] Education

• National Academy of Design, 1926
• Art Students League, 1928
• Travels through Europe, 1931-1933

[edit] List of works

• The Fleet's In!, 1933, Navy Art Gallery, Washington Navy Yard
• YMCA Locker Room, 1933
• Shore Leave, 1933
• Greenwich Village Cafeteria, 1934
• Coney Island (oil painting), 1934, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Coney Island (etching), 1935, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Aspects of Suburban Life: Main Street, 1935, D.C. Moore Gallery
• Aspects of Suburban Life: Golf, 1936, Virtual Museum of Canada
• Sailors and Floozies, 1938, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
• Pocahontas and John Smith, 1938, Port Washington Post Office
• Two Boys on a Beach #1, 1938, D.C. Moore Gallery
• Bathers, 1939
• Herrin Massacre, 1940
• Aviator, 1941
• The Shower, 1943
• The Seven Deadly Sins, 1945-1949
• What I Believe, 1947-1948, The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
• Playground, 1948
• The Bath, 1951
• Manikins, 1951
• Bar Italia, 1953-55
• Night in Bologna, 1958, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
• Sunday Sun, 1958-1959
• Male Nude, 1966, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri
• The Haircut, 1986
• Final Study for the House that Jack Built, 1987, D.C. Moore Gallery
• Me: 1940-1990, 1990, D.C. Moore Gallery
• Jon Reading NM248, 1992, D.C. Moore Gallery
• Jon Extracting a Splinter NM255, 1993, D.C. Moore Gallery

[edit] Biographical Works

• Sutherland, David. Paul Cadmus, Enfant Terrible at 80. Documentary film, 1984.
• Kirstein, Lincoln. Paul Cadmus, 1984.
• The Drawings of Paul Cadmus. (Introduction by Guy Davenport).
• Spring, Justin. Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude (New York: Universe, 2002)

[edit] Exhibitions

• Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, 1935
• Midtown Galleries, New York, 1937
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1996
• D.C. Moore Gallery, New York, 1996

[edit] Trivia

• Paul Cadmus' The Seven Deadly Sins, 1945-1949 seems to have been an influence on Andrew Kevin Walker and David Fincher's Se7en, especially the depiction of the gluttonous man having been starved to death, his punctured bowels overflowing with spaghetti.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

1. ^ Grimes, Nancy (1993). Jared French's Myths. San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks. ISBN 1-56640-322-7. 

• http://www.tendreams.org/cadmus.htm
• http://www.glbtq.com/arts/cadmus_p.html on glbtq.com
• http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/cadmus/cadmus.htm
• http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa442.htm
• http://www.johnpence.com/visuals/masters/cadmus/
• http://www.artnet.com/artist/102081/Paul_Cadmus.html
• A genius and a gentleman - painter Paul Cadmus (Obituary). The Advocate, 1 February 2005.

[edit] External links

• Art and Social Issues Paul Cadmus' Herrin Massacre as commentary of a 1925 labor dispute in Herrin, Illinois. Also includes links to artist biography and teacher resources.
• Paul Cadmus at MuseumSyndicate.com