The iconic 1933 painting Y.M.C.A. Locker Room, not seen publicly in many decades, will be on view in this exhibition. A formal Renaissance composition is juxtaposed with the mundane yet homoerotic setting of a changing room, with statuesque, half-dressed male figures animated through the meetings of limbs and gazes. The Shower (1943), a sultry Fire Island painting, explores the dynamic between Paul Cadmus and his long-time lover, painter Jared French, and Jared’s new wife–– and Cadmus’s friend–– Margaret French. The painting Manikins (1951) shows two artist’s figurines resting on William Shakespeare’s Sonnets and a copy of André Gide’s early 20th century book Corydon, which argues that homosexuality is not unnatural and was fundamental to civilizations throughout history. The Nap (1952), a languid painting of a solitary nude figure, suggests loneliness and longing.

Paul Cadmus (1904-1999) was born in New York to artist parents in 1904. A precocious artist, he won many awards and scholarships in his early years while studying at the National Academy of Design. In 1931, he left New York to travel Europe with the painter, and his lover, Jared French. They bicycled throughout Europe, seeking out churches and museums to see the art they admired firsthand. During this time, and an extended stay in Mallorca, Cadmus created drawings and some of his first satirical paintings, Y.M.C.A Locker Room and Shore Leave. When Cadmus returned to New York in 1933, he enrolled in the New Deal’s Public Works of Art Project. His irreverent painting The Fleet’s In! (1934) depicting debauched sailors on the west side of Manhattan, stirred up a controversy when the painting was ejected from a PWAP exhibition in Washington, DC. The ensuing scandal propelled his career and gave him national notoriety. His paintings from this period were painstakingly conceived with great detail, ambition, and biting wit.