Paul Cadmus

Paul Cadmus 1904-99, American painter, b. N.Y.C.; studied National Academy of Design (1919-26), Art Students' League (1928). From 1933-35 he and painter Jared French traveled to Europe, where he learned the egg-tempera technique later used in many of his paintings. A figurative artist, he painted in a vivid style sometimes dubbed magic realism. Cadmus first came to wide public attention when his painting The Fleet's In (1934), an illustrationlike frieze of lubricious sailors flirting with prostitutes and a gay man, was removed from a Corcoran Gallery exhibition by a U.S. Navy admiral who found the work "depraved." Thereafter, crowds flocked to his exhibitions. Cadmus became known for lively group scenes, often sexually-charged or homoerotic, and for tranquil portraits, often of male nudes. Among his best-known works are Coney Island (1934), Sailors and Floosies (1938), and the Seven Deadly Sins series (1945-49). Cadmus also designed sets and costumes for the ballet Filling Station (1938), directed by his brother-in-law, Lincoln Kirstein , and was known for his drawings, prints, and photographs.

Bibliography: See U. E. Johnson, Paul Cadmus: Prints and Drawings (1968); P. Eliasoph, Paul Cadmus, Yesterday and Today (1981); L. Kirstein, Paul Cadmus (1984, rev. 1992, rep. 1996); G. Davenport, The Drawings of Paul Cadmus (1989); D. Leddick, Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle (2000).



Author not available, CADMUS, PAUL., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008