Paul Cadmus

After an informative illustrated introduction by Paul Davenport, what follows is a superb collection of the artist's drawings.

With about 150 plates over 40 of which are in full colour, 15 or more illustrations to the text, and over 60 thumbnails of the artist's prints, this is a true feast for the eyes. The predominate subject of Cadmus' drawings is the male nude, or near nude singly or in groups, although this collection includes some female nudes, a number of portraits and some still-life show more drawing and few other subjects. What they all display is a remarkable talent for draughtsmanship with many of the figures seen from very difficult angles, and a great sensitivity and subtlety of touch in the drawing.

This is a well produced book, the majority of the images are presented one to a page and produced as large as the page will realistically permit, the book also includes an illustrated Catalogue Raisonné of the artist's prints 1924-1985. show less

This slim but large, almost square format publication is written by Lincoln Kirsten, who according to the introduction "has been intimate with Cadmus's (sic) art for half a century . . . and forty years ago marrying Paul's sister . . ."; so he ought to know his stuff! The intelligent, well written text is certainly illuminating, and discusses Cadmus' work in detail; it is however a little pretentious in tone at times. In addition to the commentary there are many quotations from Paul Cadmus, show more and occasionally other sources running throughout the book. These are clearly identified appearing when they do in italics in a narrow column to the side of the page. The book concludes with a Complete Catalogues of Painting 1931-1992, partly illustrated with small black and white reproductions; a list of selected exhibitions and works in public collections; and a bibliography.

This reprint of the 1984 edition contains over 150 paintings, etchings and drawings, with 86 pages of full colour, often with more than one image to the page. It includes all of Cadmus' paintings since 1984. The interesting page layout with narrow margins does lend a very busy appearance to the page, compounded by the often hectic composition of Cadmus' work. This is perhaps one artist who would benefit from the current trend of presenting the image in plenty of white space. It does at least attempt to present the images on the same page as they are discussed in the text.

As for the reproductions there is only one word: splendid. The images are crisp and bright and the colours strong, with the drawings sensitively presented in colour too. The pictures are frequently as large as the page will allow with some full page bleed or even double page. This all adds to the tantalising and provocative nature of the artist's work, making them very desirable indeed. show less

hardback book in dust-jacket