YMCA Locker Room

Paul Cadmus, YMCA Locker Room, 1934, etching on paper, plate: 6 ³⁄₈ x 12 ⁵⁄₈ in. (16.2 x 32.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Frank McClure, 1979.98.45

Artwork Details

Title: YMCA Locker Room
Artist: Paul Cadmus
Date: 1934
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: plate: 6 ³⁄₈ x 12 ⁵⁄₈ in. (16.2 x 32.1 cm)
Credit Line: Bequest of Frank McClure
Mediums Description: etching on paper
Classifications: Graphic Arts
Print
Subjects: Figure group — male
Recreation — leisure — conversation
Architecture Interior — civic — community center
Architecture Interior — civic — YMCA
Recreation — leisure — grooming
Object Number: 1979.98.45
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1979.98.45

Artwork Description

Born to artist parents in New York City, Paul Cadmus began studying art at the National Academy of Design when he was fifteen. By 1928, he was working as a commercial illustrator and taking classes in life drawing at the Art Students League. The lasting influence of this traditional art education is seen in the idealized, muscular, often nude male models he depicted throughout his career. In this etching a gym locker room provides a natural setting for presenting figures in various states of undress. Though Cadmus pokes fun at the carousing men, who pester and flirt with one another, the artist and fellow New York gay men benefitted from such safe spaces in which same-sex attraction could be expressed. In the same year as this print's creation, his painting The Fleet's In! drew criticism from government officials for its satirical depiction of drunkenness and sexually suggestive behavior among uniformed sailors in the United States Navy.