THE CENSORED PAINTINGS OF PAUL CADMUS, 1934-1940: THE BODY AS THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE DECENT AND OBSCENE by ANTHONY J. MORRIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art History and Art CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May 2010 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of Anthony J. Morris, candidate for the PhD degree*. ________________ Henry Adams ________________ (chair of the committee) ________________ Ellen G. Landau ______________ ________________ T. Kenny Fountain ____________ ________________ Renée Sentilles _______________ Date: March 15, 2010 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. Table of Contents: Table of Contents: ii. List of Figures v. Acknowledgements xi. Abstract xiii. Chapter I Introduction: Censorship and the American Scene 1. Censorship of Sex: The Comstock Laws 3. Censorship of Hate Speech: Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” 10. Censorship of Political Ideology: Diego Rivera 13. Censorship and the New Deal Mural Program 16. Paul Cadmus and Other Painters of the American Scene 21. The Depiction of the Working Class 23. The Depiction of Women and Sexuality 27. The Depiction of Alcohol Following the Prohibition Era 31. Chapter II Historiography of Paul Cadmus: The Gay Satirist 34. 1930s: Repulsive Subjects and Garish Color 35. 1941-1968: Near Silence 41. 1968-1992: Re-emergence and Re-considered 44. 1992-present: Queering Paul Cadmus 51. ii Chapter III The Navy, The New Deal, and The Fleet’s In! Reconsidered 59. The National Exhibition of Art by the Public Works of Art Project 60. Scandal at the Corcoran! 66. Queer Interpretations of The Fleet’s In! Scandal 70. The Navy, Cheap Liquor, and Women 79. Chapter IV The Immigrant Working Class at Play: Coney Island 89. Coney Island at the Whitney Museum of American Art 91. Coney Island at the Brooklyn Museum of Art 94. Coney Island as Carnival 99. Chapter V Critique of the American Bourgeoisie: Aspects of Suburban Life 111. Aspects of Suburban Life: Golf and Polo Spill 112. Aspects of Suburban Life: Public Dock 115. Aspects of Suburban Life: Main Street 119. Chapter VI Fascism, Gender, and the Navy: Sailors and Floozies 128. The Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939-40 129. Gendered Roles in Sailors and Floozies 137. Nazi and Communist Anxieties 144. iii Chapter VII Labor and Sadism: The Herrin Massacre 149. A Massacre in Herrin, Illinois 150. The Herrin Massacre at the Whitney Museum of American Art 153. Cadmus and the NAACP Exhibition 158. Corporeality and The Herrin Massacre 163. Chapter VIII Conclusion: Imaging the Homosexual at Cadmus’s 1937 Solo Exhibition 170. Conclusion 186. Figures 196. Bibliography 259. iv List of Figures: 1.1, Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe, 1934, Mural at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico. Image repainted in Mexico after Man at the Crossroads with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future, 1933 at Rockefeller Center was destroyed. 1.2, Joseph Hirsch, Justice as Protector and Avenger, 1938. Court House, Aiken, South Carolina. 1.3, Paul Cadmus, Pocahontas and John Smith, 1938. Painted for the Parcel Post Office in Richmond Virginia, currently housed at Lewis F. Powell, Jr. United States Courthouse, Richmond, Virginia. 1.4, Thomas Hart Benton, America Today: City Building, mural painted for the New School of Social Research, New York, 1930. Currently housed at the AXA Gallery, New York. 1.5, Reginald Marsh, East Tenth Street Jungle, 1934. Ink and oil wash on masonite, 29.5 x 40 in. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. 1.6, Reginald Marsh, Holy Name Mission, 1931. Tempera, 35.5 x 47.5 in. Private Collection. 1.7, Ben Shahn, Tom, Tom’s Mother, and Tom’s Wife, 1932. Gouache, 16 x 23.5 in. ACA Galleries, New York. 1.8, Ben Shahn, Handball, 1939. Tempera on paper over composition board, 22.75 x 31.25 in. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 1.9, Thomas Hart Benton, Arts of the City, 1933. Murals painted for the Whitney v Museum of Art Library in New York. 1.10, Reginald Marsh, Star Burlesque, 1933. Tempera, 48 x 36 in. Private Collection. 1.11, Reginald Marsh, Hudson Bay Fur Company, 1932. Egg tempera on muslin mounted on board, 30 x 40 in. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. 1.12, Ben Shahn, Apotheosis, 1932-33. Tempera, 18 x 48 in. Private Collection. 1.13, Thomas Hart Benton, A Social History of Missouri: Pioneer Days and Early Settlers, 1935-36. Murals painted for the Missouri House of Representatives’ Lounge in the State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri. 1.14, Reginald Marsh, Down at Jim Kelly’s, 1936. Tempera on board, 36 x 30 in. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia. 1.15, Ben Shahn, Women’s Christian Temperance Union Parade, and Parade for Repeal, both 1934. Both egg tempera and gouache on masonite, 16.5 x 31.75 in. Museum of the City of New York, New York. 1.16, Paul Cadmus, Shore Leave, 1933. Oil on canvas, 33 x 36 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 2.1, illustration for “Famous American Painters,” Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, volume 17, plate 24, 1941. 2.2, Paul Cadmus, Aviator, 1941. Egg tempera on panel, 12 x 6 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 2.3, Paul Cadmus, Mallorcan Fishermen, 1932. Oil on canvas, 22 x 20 in. Private Collection. 2.4, Paul Cadmus, Playground, 1948. Egg tempera on panel, 23.5 x 17.5 in. Georgia vi Museum of Art. 2.5, Paul Cadmus, Venus and Adonis, 1936. Oil and tempera on panel, 28.6 x 32.5 in. Forbes. 3.1, Paul Cadmus, The Fleet’s In!, 1934. Oil and tempera on canvas, 30 x 60 in. Navy Historical Center, Washington, DC. 3.2, Paul Cadmus, Greenwich Village Cafeteria, 1934. Oil on canvas, 25.5 x 39.5 in. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 3.3, Charles Demuth, Dancing Sailors, 1917. Watercolor over graphite, 8 x 10.1 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art. 3.4, Munsingwear’s “Stretchy Seat” underwear advertisement found in Life (March 17, 1941). 3.5, Lucky Strike advertisement featuring Gary Cooper found in Life (July 26, 1937). 3.6, John Sloan, The Old Wigwam, 1934. Tempera with oil varnish glaze on panel, 30 x 25 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 4.1, Paul Cadmus, Coney Island, 1934. Oil on canvas, 32.44 x 36.3 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 4.2, Reginald Marsh, Coney Island, 1935. Tempera, 30 x 40 in. Private Collection. 4.3, Photo by Reginald Marsh of Coney Island beachgoers, c. 1935. Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C. 4.4, Reginald Marsh, Coney Island Beach, 1934. Tempera, 36 x 40 in. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. 4.5, Reginald Marsh, Negroes on Rockaway Beach, 1934. Egg tempera on composition vii board, 30 x 40 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 5.1, Paul Cadmus, Aspects of Suburban Life: Golf, 1936. Oil and tempera on fiberboard, 31.75 x 50 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. 5.2, Paul Cadmus, Aspects of Suburban Life: Polo Spill, 1936. Oil and tempera on fiberboard, 31.5 x 45.75 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. 5.3, Paul Cadmus, Aspects of Suburban Life: Public Dock, 1936. Oil and tempera on fiberboard, 31.5 x 52.5 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. 5.4, Paul Cadmus, Aspects of Suburban Life: Main Street, 1936. Oil and tempera on fiberboard, 31.8 x 73.4 in. The Regis Collection, Minneapolis. 5.5, Paul Cadmus, Commuter Rush, 1935. Oil and tempera on paper, 5.5 x 12 in. The Regis Collection, Minneapolis. 5.6, Paul Cadmus, Regatta, 1935. Oil and tempera on paper, 5.1 x 8.8 in. Collection of John P. Axelrod, Boston. 5.7, W.H. Brown, “Missouri Legs,” Life (December 28, 1936). 5.8, Edward Hopper, Office at Night, 1940. Oil on canvas, 22.25 x 25 in. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 6.1, Paul Cadmus, Sailors and Floozies, 1938. Oil and tempera on panel, 33.5 x 48.5 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 6.2, Paul Cadmus, Seeing the New Year In, 1939. Oil and tempera on linen laid on panel, 30 x 38 in. Private Collection. 6.3, Peter Paul Rubens, Venus and Adonis, middle to late 1630s. Oil on canvas, 77.75 x viii 95.5 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 6.4, Photo of artists at the costume party closing “Art in Action” at the San Francisco World’s Fair dressed as Sailors and Floozies, found in Life (October 14, 1940) 67. 6.5, Barberini Faun, late 3rd or early 2nd century BCE. Marble, 84.6 in. tall. Glyptothek, Munich. 6.6, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Odalisque with a Slave, 1842. Oil on canvas 29.9 x 41.3 in. Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 6.7, Henri Matisse, Reclining Odalisque or Harmony in Red, 1927. Oil on canvas, 15.1 x 21.6 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 7.1, Paul Cadmus, The Herrin Massacre, 1940. Tempera and oil on panel, 30.5 x 26.8 in. Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio. 7.2, John Steuart Curry, Hoover and the Flood, 1940. Oil on panel, 37.5 x 63 in. Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia. 7.3, Alexandre Hogue, Spindletop, 1940. 7.4, Philip Evergood, American Tragedy, 1937. Oil on canvas, 29.5 x 39.5 in.