Paul Cadmus is now recognized as a progressive artist, who is well respected in drawing, painting and photography. His works are known for portraying compelling works of nude men.
Cadmus was born in New York, New York in 1904. Cadmus grew up in the city of New York and to a poor family. He knew that he wanted to become an artist at a young age, in part due to the positive influence of his parents, whom were both full time artists. At the age of fifteen Cadmus entered the National Academy of Design and continued and finished his studies at the Art Student League at the age of twenty-three. His schooling provided him with a strict classical education inclusive of drawing, printmaking, lithography and painting.
Cadmus was a very successful student, but found his classical education to be useful, but also repetitive and bland. He continued his artistic studies independently and through them met his friend, Jared French, who became his lover, inspiration and travel mate. The two saved money for nearly four years so that they could invest into traveling abroad and in order to learn and be exposed to the art in Europe. In 1931 the two ventured to France and Spain, and due to the Depression were able to live cheaply there until 1933. Cadmus gained the most inspiration from J. French, who urged Cadmus to create paintings from his mind rather than from existing figures and spaces. Cadmus and French left Europe in 1933 after Cadmus received press clippings from his sister about the Public Works Arts Project, which was being implemented as a part of the New Deal under President Roosevelt.
When Cadmus arrived to New York he applied for an opportunity to work with the government funded Public Works Art Project. He was speedily accepted into the program and soon after created his controversial painting, Fleet’s In!. The painting portrayed American sailors drinking, smoking, looking for play, relaxed and enjoying themselves. The work created a tremendous uproar with the public, the Navy, and the PWPA. People and members of the Navy felt that the painting mocked the image of the Navy by showing portraying them as intoxicated, hitting on both men and women, and demonstrating insulting reckless behavior. Of course, the strong response publicized Cadmus as an artist and gave his career a positive push forward. Today the original painting is in the Navy Historical Center.
Cadmus continued to paint a wide variety of subject matter. He tackled visions in his own mind, renderings of people in public places, racial lynching, massacres (journalistic art), and the idea of the classical nude. His nude drawings, which were produced later in his career, are, according to one source, 75% of his completed drawings. To Cadmus, drawing was similar to music, something a person had to practice daily, but also something he immensely enjoyed and took seriously. He says of his nude models that, “… [one should] try to have as close as a communion with [ones] model as possible under the circumstances. In other words, involve yourself. Don’t draw what you cannot get involved with.”
QUESTIONS:
How do the following quotations by Cadmus affect your interpretation of his work?
" Labels are swarming everywhere like nipping gnats. The advise people what to think so that they do not need to bother to think, feel or sense for themseles. An artist IS or IS NOT...Labels indicating gender, color of skin, sexual orientation are just a kind of gossip..."Of his male nudes:
"I specialize in male nudes. I've done many more males than females. I like to do females too, but they are sort of harder to come by in a way. And they don't generally pose as well as men. They have a tendency to faint. I think-and I don't know whether it is just my own idea-that men are vainer than women in that they work harder at posing. Maybe women think they are so lovely that they don't have to pose well, I'm not sure. I don't know if you feelings are at all erotic towards the model whether or not that would make a better drawing or not. It might make it worse, I'm not sure. I suppose either way, the cooler you are maybe the better you draw. I've been drawing now Anderson for seventeen years now. I mark everything so that the models can get back to in the exact position, because, ideally, they should pose like apples or pears, except that they don't rot-at least not as quickly...
About Fleet's In!:
"I owe the start of my career really to the Admiral who tried to suppress it. I didn't feel an moral indignation about those sailors, even though it wouldn't be my idea of a good time. The girls are not particularly attractive, neither are the sailors as a matter of fact...But I always enjoyed watching them. I somewhat envied them the freedom of their lives and their lack of inhibitions. And I observed. I was always watching them. I didn't know them personally, I was not going after them or expecting any relationship with them, but they were fun to watch.
Of his work:
"I never aimed to be controversial. I suppose it was just my objection to society as it was. [All of the WPA projects] caused some controversy, as did other woks of mine done later."
On Coney Island:
"I did it for myself...Coney Island seemed to me a sort of classical American subject.
All of the male nude models are physically pleasing to they eye, why do you believe this to be so? Does it affect the meaning of the work? Does it say something about the artist? Is it simply mimicking the classical nudes in the past, which were also quintessentially portrayed? Does it mean anything at all?
How do the positions of the men in the paintings make you feel as a viewer? If the people were women how would you view the paintings? Compare and contrast the male and female nudes.
The men are often not looking at the viewer, does this make the paintings demeaning towards men?
Why does Cadmus portray nudes of people doing everyday things while naked?
How do his female nudes contrast to his male nudes?
In his paintings of people, what do the details/general scene in the work say about the environment, culture, about people, tradition, 'normal' etc...? What do they say to you as a viewer...are they social statements?
Are the Seven Deadly Sins portrayed as males or as females?
Coney Island(mural)
Fleet's In(mural)
Playground
Male Nudes
Female Nudes
"What I Believe"
Seven Deadly Sins (4 of 7)
2 comments:
wow, okay that's a lot of questions but i'll try to get some of them...
"The men are often not looking at the viewer, does this make the paintings demeaning towards men?"
I wonder what makes a portrait demeaning? is it eye contact? sometimes i think eye contact can make an image even more demeaning or sexually objectifying. typicially when you see images of women looking dead into a camera and they're naked, it can be very sexual and alluring. i think the fact that candmus doesnt show the mean looking directly at the viewer makes the art more appreciative of the person as a figure. it's a study of the human body, and i don't feel at all like it's sexual or demeaning.
also, if the subject were looking at the viewer whether or not it's demeaning is really dependent on the way the eyes are i suppose.
I decided to pick the question that contrasts the male and female nudes.
SO, after looking at the drawings, I would first like to mention how highly I appreciate his sense of perspective with his figures. After spending so much time with our models and trying to draw arms and legs in the right distance from the other on paper and to make them appear to be doing what they are really doing, I have a very high regard for Candmus' eye. Also, I find it interesting that the positions of the male nudes are so openly vulnerable, whereas the females are folded, sometimes covered by their arm angle/ leg angle. All of the bodies seem lethargically floppy, or maybe relaxed.. they seem to simply be splayed or crumpled upon the setting, which might reflect Cadmus' thought process/ plan of the nude representations. They seem cool and quiet, serene perhaps, lounging aimlessly. And, when one is in this certain state of mind, one is most vulnerable, so the two ideas do in fact intertwine.
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