Aspects of Suburban Life: Polo

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.