Customer Reviews

Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude

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This book is a treasure for any Cadmus fan. While Lincoln Kirstein's 1992 monograph includes reproductions of all of Cadmus's major paintings, it only has a dozen or so of his figurative drawings. Justin Spring's book more than makes up for this lack (it has 67 color plates). The fact that he does so by taking on the seemingly narrow focus of male nudes is truly appropriate. While the paintings are often highly active, heavily detailed social satires with not-so-subtle homoerotic elements, the drawings are calmer, context-free, more admiring meditations on the male form. They are clearly the work of an attentive observer and a disciplined draughtsman. When the art world was going ga-ga over abstract expressionism and slap-dash gestural drawing, Cadmus was painstakingly working in virtual isolation. And though a number of sketches are included in this volume, it is the finished drawing that most interested Cadmus. Reginald Marsh, Jared French, Pierro dela Francesca, Michaelangelo, Signorelli, and Ingres were his dominent influences. Along with ballet photographer George Platt Lynes. And from writer E.M. Forster he acquired a philosophic outlook that would guide him both as an artist and as a man: "tolerance, good temper and sympathy--they are what matter...if the human race is not to collapse."

Spring's five essays (Introduction, Beginnings, Development, Maturity, Conclusion) provide everything you need to know to fully appreciate the plates. He addresses Cadmus's homosexuality directly and without sensation and discusses Cadmus's well-reasoned reluctance to be associated with more blatantly sexual gay art (including his refusal to have one of his works reproduced in a biography of Tom of Finland, an admirer of Cadmus). Spring also identifies the models for many of the drawings; this is significant because Cadmus considered his drawings to be a collaboration between himself and his models. Cadmus's life partner Jon Anderson was his frequent subject from the late 60s until the artist's death, and it is fascinating to see how Anderson's body changed over time; the model clearly never lost his sense of comfort and ease modeling nude.

Not revisionist history, just a long overdue update on a neglected but significant American artist of the 20th century. Universe Publishing (a division of Rizzoli International Publications) is to be commended on the design and quality of this book.

I only discovered about Paul Cadmus a little bit ago, but was simply blown away by his style and art. This book is a wonderful introduction to the life and art of one of the twentieth century's quietest artists who remained active to the very end of his long life, and managed to cross both gender and sexual barriers to breathe new life into what most of us would regard as a dry subject -- namely, art. Here Cadmus' love for, and vigor, show through in more than seventy drawings, many of them of his life partner and lover, Jon Anderson. Techinically brilliant, they are also sensitive without being overtly erotic -- enough so that I wouldn't mind hanging any of the artist's prints in my own home. Both lovers of art and artists will like this one, the reproductions are crisp enough that Cadmus' style of crosshatching and use of charcoal and chalk will both inspire and bring enjoyment. Recommended.

Excellent resource for figure drawing, beautiful images, full page in most cases, wonderful information on the artist Cadmus, would recommend to anyone interested in drawing, figure drawing, or art in general!

Length:: 4:59 Mins

Browsing an art book before I make a purchase is very helpful, I hope this video will help others decide. If you like Cadmus/his work, appreciate drawings or are a student at Fine Arts, this book is highly recommended.

Reading one book by the art critic and historian Justin Spring is like having a taste of a newly opened box of caramels. His style of writing is so completely relaxed and obsessively documented that each of his books reads as well as a novel (refer to THE SECRET HISTORIAN, his most recent survey of the life and work of Samuel Steward). Here his subject is not an unknown artist by any means, but one who is under-appreciated to say the least.

Paul Cadmus (December 17, 1904 - December 12, 1999) was an American artist who unfortunately was born in a time before his art could be fully appreciated. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures, either drawn or rendered in egg tempura. Combining elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism, he was an openly but rather private homosexual, and his paintings dealt with this fact. One of his most famous paintings, 'The Fleet's In', painted in 1934 as part of the WPA Public Works of Art Project, and while admired for the quality of painting, the public had difficulty with the subject matter: carousing sailors, women, and a homosexual couple, and the painting was removed from exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery due to negative public response. The positive aspect of this notorious gesture proved very much in Cadmus' favor as it brought him notoriety and subsequently fame. His works very frequently included male nudes, and often the model was Jon Andersson, Cadmus' longtime companion of 35 years. Another important influence on the success of Cadmus' art was his fellow artist and sometimes lover Jared French. Together these two men did more for establishing the validity of the male nude as a subject in a rather homophobic atmosphere.

Cadmus' drawings are reminiscent of the Renaissance nudes of Michelangelo and Caravaggio, his emphasis being on the defined muscular forms of his models. While they were infrequently frontal in pose they were without exception sensuous. Spring tells us the whys of Cadmus' choices and offers us one of the most generous volumes of images of the works of this fine artist available today. Spring focuses on his images of the male nude, finding this aspect of Cadmus' output his most impressively executed and in the end the reason his work will be remembered. Justin Spring has the gift of a well-trained discerning eye for art and yet for all the historical brilliance of his writing, the reader is left with the feeling that reading this book has been a chat with a close friend of the artist. It is a pleasure to read - and learn - from him in this very fine book. Grady Harp, September 10

"Mr. Cadmus was, at the time of his death, a senior examplar of a vital if submerged academic realist tradition in American painting, one that has meandered in various guises from Thomas Eakins to Ivan Albright and Reginald Marsh and has resurfaced, again transformed, in the work of younger painters today."--Holland Cotter, NEW YORK TIMES

Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude was just named a Lambda Literary Award Finalist in the Visual Arts Category. Congratulations to author Justin Spring! The winners will be announced on May 29th, 2003 in Los Angeles.