Cut-and-pasted paper, gouache, watercolor, and pencil on paper
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.
Lincoln Kirstein’s Modern, March 17 – June 15, 2019.
Gallery label from Stage Pictures: Drawings for Performance , March 11–August.
For the 1938 Ballet Caravan production (premiere Hartford, Connecticut). Choreography by Lew Christensen. Music by Virgil Thomson. Book by Lincoln Kirstein
Filling Station was a keystone in the uniquely American repertory of Lincoln Kirstein's concert group, the Ballet Caravan. Founded in 1936, the Caravan represented one in a series of companies that eventually led to Kirstein's establishment of the New York City Ballet. In 1941 the company merged with American Ballet to become the American Ballet Caravan, a touring group that brought homegrown themes to audiences in South America. Filling Station, which concerns a gas-station attendant's run-ins with various patrons, received rave reviews in the United States and abroad. The ballet's subject matter allowed Cadmus to further explore themes seen in his fine–art practice: the eroticized male body and views of everyday American life.
Explore more
From MoMA Design Store
Installation views
We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.
Licensing
Artwork or archival images
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
Audio and film clips
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.
Text from a publication or the archives
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.