Paul Cadmus

Mac, the Filling Station Attendant. Costume design for the ballet Filling Station

1937

Gouache, watercolor, and pencil on card

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, watercolor, and pencil on card
Dimensions 10 1/8 x 13 1/4" (25.7 x 33.7 cm)
Credit Gift of Lincoln Kirstein
Object number 506.1941.20
Department Drawings and Prints

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