Paul Cadmus

Many of Paul Cadmus’ drawings are lavishly executed in colored chalk and crayon on hand-toned papers. The critic and writer Justin Spring in an extended essay on the artist observes, “In an age of sensation, Cadmus suggests an alternative to rude or shocking images of male nudity. In essence, a return to finer and simpler sources of delight, a return to the beauty of the body as experienced through the transformative act of drawing. By working in a medium that connects his artistic practice in the twentieth century directly to that of the Renaissance, Cadmus reminds us that a very similar loving appreciation of the male form by male artists lies at the very heart of the Western visual arts tradition.”