Object Type: Work on Paper

Medium and Support: etching

Credit Line: Florence Griswold Museum; Gift of Charles T. Clark in honor of the Museum Staff

Accession Number: 2019.24

Polo Spill is characteristic of Cadmus, who often engaged in social critique by depicting erotically-charged figures among scenes of the everyday life combined with elements inspired by Italian Renaissance and Baroque paintings. In Polo Spill a photographer daringly captures a photo of a polo collision while a group of wealthy Long Islanders cringe in horror. The subject was part of the series Aspects of Suburban Life, which was commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project for a post office mural. Cadmus’s supervisors found the image offensive, however, and the project was never realized. The print was created after the painting, which is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.