Aspects+of+Suburban+Life+(Polo)

Date: 1936
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1978/1978.76.3_1a.jpg?itok=1IBLJPP8 width="341" height="238" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/aspects-of-suburban-life-polo-3606"]] || Title: **Aspects of Suburban Life: Polo**

Artist: **Paul Cadmus** Born: New York, New York 1904 Died: Weston, Connecticut 1999

Medium: oil and tempera on fiberboard Dimensions: 31 5/8 x 45 3/4 in. (80.3 x 116.2 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Transfer from the U.S. Department of State

Accession: 1978.76.3 || “I believe in exaggeration, because if things are not exaggerated people pass them by, and people’s noses should be rubbed in all sorts of things, pleasant and unpleasant.” Cadmus, quoted in Kirstein, Paul Cadmus, 1992
 * Luce Center Quote: **

This painting is from Paul Cadmus’s Aspects of Suburban Life series and shows wealthy Long Islanders watching a game of polo. The series was commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project for a post office mural. Cadmus’s supervisors found the images offensive, however, and the project was never completed. In Polo, a photographer from a society magazine eagerly snaps a collision of horses on the field while glamorous women gasp and clutch their pearls. The exaggerated reactions of the idlers suggest that the accident offered more excitement than the game itself. The tiny, swirling brushstrokes capture the sheen on luxurious furs and the furrowed veins in a player’s brawny arms, creating an almost uneasy closeness between the viewer and the scene. Cadmus turned the same scrutiny that his technique required to the subjects of his paintings, revealing the theatrics that underlay the rituals of everyday life.
 * Luce Center Label: **

Main Street, the fourth painting in the series, became separated from the other works after the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa returned it. The Art in Embassies Program found the sexual content of Main Street "unsuitable" (Kloss, 241). Today the Myron Kunin Collection of American Art owns the painting.
 * Background on Aspects of Suburban Life: **

The three paintings in the Smithsonian American Art Museum are tamer. Oddly, Main Street is also a foot longer. Compositionally Golf, Polo, and Public Dock form a unifying arch and exhibit Renaissance devices like a worm’s eye view. Hot red, pink, orange, and yellow colors appear in the three works. Activity as well as interaction among the figures characterizes the scenes. Cadmus used actors and onlookers to create a narrative of social commentary.

Sources: Mia, @http://collections.artsmia.org/art/111502/aspects-of-suburban-life-mainstreet-paul-cadmus; William Kloss, Treasure from the National Museum of American Art (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985), 241-242.

Paul Cadmus is known for critically depicting social concerns relevant to contemporary life. In particular, many of his works deal with humorous and romantic sexual themes as well as social class differences. From 1919 to 1926 Cadmus studied at the National Academy of Design and at the Art Students League in 1928. Later with artist Jared French (1905-1988) he toured Italy, where Cadmus admired the technical draftsmanship and classical composition of Italian Renaissance paintings. Seeing such works inspired Cadmus to use egg tempera, which he often combined with oil paint. Thus, the monumental style and physical appearance of the artist’s paintings share some similarities with the Renaissance style. Cadmus is also remembered for his work as a WPA artist, and for his aversion to gender biases and dislike of using narrow categories to identify artists.
 * Artist Biography: **

Sources: Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T012944q=paul+cadmus+&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit ; Philip Eliasoph, “A Tribute to Paul Cadmus” University of Chicago Press, vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 2000), 90-94; William Kloss, Treasure from the National Museum of American Art (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985), 150, 241-243.

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **