Paul Cadmus Mac, the Filling Station Attendant. Costume design for the ballet Filling Station 1937

Not on view

In these designs for the ballet Filling Station, the artist Paul Cadmus gave vivid details to stock characters: grease-stained handprints on the character Ray’s uniform, a “slapstick” cigarette dangling from the Rich Girl’s lips, mismatched shoes and rouged knees on the Motorist’s Daughter. The transparent coveralls he imagined for the protagonist, Mac, the Filling Station Attendant, introduce a homosexual subtext, also present through the use of the prominent arrow pointing to the gas station’s “Rest Room,” a site for cruising.

Gallery label from Lincoln Kirstein’s Modern, March 17 – June 15, 2019.

Medium: Gouache, pencil, and watercolor on card
Dimensions: 11 x 6 7/8" (27.9 x 17.5 cm)
Credit: Gift of Lincoln Kirstein
Object number: 506.1941.4
Copyright: © 2024 Estate of Paul Cadmus
Associated work: Twenty-two costume designs and one set design for the ballet Filling Station
Department: Drawings and Prints

This work is part of an associated work with 22 other works online.
Paul Cadmus has 41 works online.
There are 18,006 drawings online.

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