Paul Cadmus
1904–1999

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11 works

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Paul Cadmus, Sailors and Floosies, 1938

Stop 704 from America Is Hard to See

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Paul Cadmus, Sailors and Floosies, 1938

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Paul Cadmus: Some of these sailors are rather sympathetic, as well as one of the girls, the one in the ridiculous hat. I don’t know where I invented that hat.
Narrator: Artist Paul Cadmus. He called this painting Sailors and Floosies. It’s set in Manhattan’s Riverside Park, near a monument called the Sailors and Soldiers Memorial. Art historian Richard Meyer.
Richard Meyer: One of the things that Cadmus did, which is quite amazing about this painting, is that he created a unique frame. . .And what he did in the painted frame is, he continued some of the graffiti that is depicted on. . .the [Sailors and Soldiers] Memorial, within the painting, that graffiti continues around the frame of the painting. So he’s sort of bringing a decorative element, but also, some part of the story, of the fiction of the painting, out onto the frame of the painting.
Narrator: Notice that the sailors here aren’t really paying attention to the floosies.
Richard Meyer: Cadmus, whenever there is heterosexual pairing in his paintings, something goes wrong. . .What he seems more interested in is a certain homoeroticism. . .
Narrator: Some critics were upset by this image when it was first shown. They called it tawdry— repulsive—unpatriotic. Ironically, it wasn’t the homoerotic content per se that caused the controversy. Rather, critics were offended by the depiction of Navy sailors drunk and carousing on the eve of World War II.
Paul Cadmus: I replied to them, "I think the picture portrays an enjoyable side of Navy life. I think it would make a good recruiting poster. I will raise my prices."
Paul Cadmus, Finistère, 1952

From American Legends: From Calder to O'Keeffe

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Paul Cadmus, Finistère, 1952

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Narrator: Finistère—the French region that lends this Paul Cadmus painting its name—is in the far west of Brittany, where the English Channel and the Atlantic meet.
The painting’s two main figures are young men on bicycles. Each wears nothing but a shirt and revealing swim briefs. They have the bodies of Classical or Renaissance nudes: idealized and strong. Cadmus was deeply influenced by Italian Renaissance painting. Here, he’s even executed the work in egg tempera, a painstaking medium that most artists had given up by the later sixteenth century.
The picture’s mood is a little odd. The sea wall is labyrinthine, and blocks most of the ocean view. Hardly anyone is looking at each other, and it’s not entirely clear what’s going on. Most of the figures seem intent on their private thoughts or business. There’s a strange huddle of people to the right, including a woman in traditional Breton costume. She adds to the painting’s slightly surreal quality—but perhaps also hints at the presence of conservative society.
The two central men aren’t making eye contact either, but they do seem to be communicating. In this way, the painting is slyly humorous about how homoerotic desire can hide in plain sight—even at a time when that desire was essentially forbidden.

Exhibitions

A 30-second online art project:

Peter Burr, Sunshine Monument

Learn more

Learn more at whitney.org/artport