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Sylvia Sleigh

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Sylvia Sleigh
Born(1916-05-08)8 May 1916
Llandudno, Gwynedd, Wales
Died24 October 2010(2010-10-24) (aged 94)
New York, NY
NationalityWelsh-American
EducationBrighton School of Art
Known forPainting
Notable work
  • Philip Golub Reclining (1971)
  • The Turkish Bath (1973)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1954; died 1990)​
Awards
The Turkish Bath (1973)
The Turkish Bath (1862) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Sylvia Sleigh (Llandudno, Gwynedd, Wales, 8 May 1916—24 October 2010, New York, NY) was a Welsh-born naturalised American realist painter.[1]

Early life and education

Sleigh studied at the Brighton School of Art.[2] She moved to London in 1941 after marrying her first husband, Michael Greenwood.[1] Her first solo exhibition was in 1953 at the Kensington Art Gallery.[3] Sleigh met her second husband, Lawrence Alloway, a curator and art critic, while taking evening classes at the University of London; they married in 1954 and moved to the United States in 1961.[2][4] The following year, Alloway became a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.[4][5]

Work and feminism

Around 1970, from feminist principles, she painted a number of works reversing stereotypical artistic themes by featuring nude men in poses that were traditionally associated with women, like the reclining Venus or odalisque.[1] Some directly alluded to existing works, such as Philip Golub Reclining (1971), which appropriates the pose of the Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez.[6] This work also presents a reversal of the male-artist/female-muse pattern typical of the Western canon and is reflective of research into the position of women throughout the history of art as model, mistress, and muse, but rarely as artist−genius.[7] The Turkish Bath (1973), a similarly gender-reversed version of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres's painting of the same name, depicts a group of art critics, including her husband, Lawrence Alloway (reclining at the lower right).[2][8] Throughout her career, Sleigh painted over thirty works that feature her husband as her subject. While somewhat idealized, Sleigh's figures remain highly individualized.[9]

In her male nudes, the subject "is used as a vehicle to express erotic feelings, just as male artists have always used the female nude"[10] In works such as Paul Rosano Reclining (1974) and Imperial Nude: Paul Rosano (1975), Sleigh portrayed her male subjects in stereotypical female poses in order to comment on past biases in which male artists have depicted sexualized female nudes.[11]

Other works equalize the roles of men and women, such as Concert Champêtre (1976), in which all of the figures are nude, unlike its similarly composed namesake by Titian (earlier credited to Giorgione), in which only the women are unclothed. As Sleigh explained, "I feel that my paintings stress the equality of men and women (women and men). To me, women were often portrayed as sex objects in humiliating poses. I wanted to give my perspective. I liked to portray both man and woman as intelligent and thoughtful people with dignity and humanism that emphasized love and joy."[12] Likewise, her painting of Lilith (1976), created as a component of The Sister Chapel, a collaborative installation that premiered in 1978, depicts the superimposed bodies of a man and woman to emphasize the fundamental similarities between the two genders.[13]

Sleigh was a founding member of the all-women, artist-run SOHO 20 Gallery (est. 1973) and later joined A.I.R. Gallery (est. 1972).[14] She painted group portraits of both organizations.[15] Between 1976 and 2007, Sleigh painted a series of 36-inch portraits which feature women artists and writers, including Helène Aylon, Catharine R. Stimpson, Howardena Pindell, Selina Trieff, and Vernita Nemec.[16][17] Sleigh taught for some time at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and at the New School for Social Research.[2] In a 2007 interview with Brian Sherwin, Sleigh was asked if gender equality issues in the mainstream art world, and the world in general, had changed for the better. She answered, "I do think things have improved for women in general there are many more women in government, in law and corporate jobs, but it's very difficult in the art world for women to find a gallery." According to Sleigh, there is still more that needs to be done in order for men and women to be treated as equals in the art world.[18]

Recognition

During the last two decades of her life, Sleigh purchased or negotiated trades of over 100 works of art by other women and exhibited her growing collection at SOHO 20 Gallery in 1999.[17] These included paintings, sculptures, and prints by Cecile Abish, Dotty Attie, Helène Aylon, Blythe Bohnen, Louise Bourgeois, Ann Chernow, Rosalyn Drexler, Martha Edelheit, Audrey Flack, Shirley Gorelick, Nancy Grossman, Pegeen Guggenheim, Nancy Holt, Lila Katzen, Irene Krugman, Diana Kurz, Marion Lerner-Levine, Vernita Nemec, Betty Parsons, Ce Roser, Susan Sills, Michelle Stuart, Selina Trieff, Audrey Ushenko, Sharon Wybrants, and many others. In 2011, the Sylvia Sleigh Collection was donated to the Rowan University Art Gallery and forms the core of its permanent collection.[19]

As a visiting professor of painting, Sleigh was awarded the Edith Kreeger Wolf Distinguished Professorship at Northwestern University in 1977.[20] She received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982 and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 1985.[21]

In 2008, Sleigh was honored with the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement by the College Art Association.[22] She was similarly recognized by the Women's Caucus for Art, which posthumously awarded Sleigh the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Grimes, William (25 October 2010). "Sylvia Sleigh, Provocative Portraitist and Feminist Artist, Dies at 94". New York Times. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d Brown, Betty Ann (1997). "Sleigh, Sylvia". In Gaze, Delia (ed.). Dictionary of Women Artists. Vol. 2. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. pp. 1280–1281.
  3. ^ Swartz, Anne (2011). "Sylvia Sleigh: Biography". Women's Caucus for Art: Honor Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (PDF). Women's Caucus for Art. p. 26. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  4. ^ a b Schlegel, Amy Ingrid, ed. (2001). "An Unnerving Romanticism:" The Art of Sylvia Sleigh and Lawrence Alloway. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Art Alliance.
  5. ^ "Dictionary of Art Historians". Alloway, Lawrence. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
  6. ^ Dunford, Penny (1990). A Biographical Dictionary of Women Artists in Europe and America Since 1850. Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
  7. ^ Borzello, Frances (1998). Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-Portraits. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
  8. ^ Borzello, Frances (2 November 2001). "Nude awakening". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  9. ^ Schlegel, Amy Ingrid (16 June 2011). "A Tribute to Sylvia Sleigh (1916–2010)". College Art Association. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  10. ^ Semmel, Joan; Kingsley, April (Spring–Summer 1980). "Sexual Imagery in Women's Art". Woman's Art Journal. 1 (1): 1–6. doi:10.2307/1358010.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  11. ^ Arnason, H.H.; Mansfield, Elizabeth (2013). History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography (7th ed.). Pearson Education Inc. p. 577.
  12. ^ Love and joy Archived 2007-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Hottle, Andrew D. (2014). The Art of the Sister Chapel: Exemplary Women, Visionary Creators, and Feminist Collaboration. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited. p. 160.
  14. ^ Broude, Norma; Garrard, Mary D., eds. (1994). The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
  15. ^ Moyer, Carrie (3 February 2010). "Sylvia Sleigh". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  16. ^ a b Hottle, Andrew D. (2011). "Sylvia Sleigh". Women's Caucus for Art: Honor Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (PDF). Women's Caucus for Art. p. 26. Retrieved 2 September 2014. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  17. ^ a b Parallel Visions: Selections from the Sylvia Sleigh Collection of Women Artists. New York: SOHO20 Gallery. 1999.
  18. ^ Sherwin, Brian. "Art Space Talk: Sylvia Sleigh". myartspace>blog. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  19. ^ Hottle, Andrew D. (2011). "Sylvia Sleigh: Artist and Collector". Groundbreaking: The Women of the Sylvia Sleigh Collection (PDF). Glassboro, NJ: Rowan University Art Gallery. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  20. ^ "Finding Aid for the Sylvia Sleigh Papers, 1803-2011, bulk 1940-2000". Getty Research Institute. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  21. ^ "Sylvia Sleigh, CV" (PDF). Feminist Art Base, Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
  22. ^ "Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement". College Art Association. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
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