Paul Cadmus

A lavish portfolio of never-before-seen erotic drawings by celebrated twentieth-century American artist and gay icon, Paul Cadmus

Paul Cadmus entered the art scene in the 1930s with paintings of dream-like urban demi-mondes: roiling tableaux of beatniks, sailors, and prostitutes. Undergirding his work has always been the artist’s masterful draftsmanship, seen in hundreds of drawings of nude male models, chief among them his long-time lover and muse, Jon Anderson. Paul Cadmus: 49 Drawings collects these never-before-seen drawings for the first time, presenting a singular body of work that exemplifies Cadmus’s classical proficiency, channelled into an obsessive emphasis of his model’s erotic zones. 

Packaged in a stamped portfolio envelope, this is a landmark collection of queer art by a twentieth-century master, its images complemented by an introduction by Graham Steele that details the significance of Paul Cadmus to his career in the art world, plus an essay by leading queer-art scholar Richard Meyer, as well as a momentous discussion with painters Nash Glynn, Doron Langberg, and Oscar yi Hou, moderated by curator and critic Jarrett Earnest. 

This elegant book, sumptuously produced to reflect the eminence of this newly revealed body of work, and the intimacy of its subject matter, represents a rare exposé of a significant body of unknown work from a major twentieth-century artist, and a substantial contribution to the study and legacy of queer art.