
Chuck Close/Paul Cadmus: In Dialogue
April 5, 1997 - June 22, 1997

Chuck Close/Paul Cadmus: In Dialogue
April 5, 1997 - June 22, 1997
The acquisition of Chuck Close's portrait
Paul, painted in 1994, inspired the Museum to mount a small exhibition that would juxtapose
Paul
with paintings by Paul Cadmus. Cadmus--the subject of Close's portrait--is himself a celebrated American artist. Now 92, he first won
notoriety in 1934, when Navy officials publicly condemned his painting
The Fleet's In!, a satirical scene of sailors on leave. Since then,
outside the spotlight of scandal, Cadmus has developed a mode of figurative painting astonishing in both its narrative invention and its
exacting technique. This presentation features
The Seven Deadly Sins, egg tempera paintings made between 1945 and 1949, plus an "eighth
sin,"
Jealousy, painted in 1982-83.
For three decades, Chuck Close (American, born 1940) has been making monumental paintings based on his own portrait photographs. During
the 1990s, the precise marks of Close's earlier work have given way to free, lush passages of paint. His gridded units have loosened and
expanded, forming a legible portrait only when the viewer backs away.
Juxtaposing the work of two remarkable artists, this installation invites reflection on matters of figuration and abstraction, miniature and
gigantism, calculation and imagination--conventional oppositions that appear not to be so purely opposite after all. The accompanying
brochure features a conversation with Close and Cadmus that illuminates their association on both an artistic and a personal level.
Curator
Ann Temkin