71. SYLVIA
SLEIGH
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Working
at Home, 1969
Oil on Canvas, 56” x 32” |
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At The
Turkish Bath, 1976 Oil on Canvas 76” x 100”
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Group
Portrait, 1977-78, Oil on Canvas 76” x 82”
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BIO & STEPS
Born:
In 1916 in Llandudno, Wales
Died
2010, New York, NY
Education:
She studied at the Brighton Schol of Art and had her first solo exhibition in 1953 at the
Kensington Art Gallery. After her graduation, she worked as a dresser in a
dress shop and later opened her own shop in Brighton.
Themes and style:
She
painted a series of works reversing stereotypical artistic themes by featuring
nude men in poses that were traditionally associated with women. Some directly
alluded to existing works, such as her gender-reversed version of Jean Auguste
Dominique Ingres's, The Turkish Bath (1973), which depicts a group of art
critics, including her husband Lawrence Alloway (reclining at the lower right).
Philip Golub Reclining (1971) similarly appropriates the pose of the Rokeby
Venus by Diego Velázquez. 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.
Techniques:
Her work is developed in paintings.
SOLO
EXHIBITIONS
2013 Sylvia Sleigh: Tate Liverpool, Liverpool,
England
2013 Sylvia Sleigh: CAPC Musee d’art
Contemporian de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
2012 Sylvia Sleigh: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen,
Switzerland
2012 Sylvia Sleigh: Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Noway
2011 Sylvia Sleigh: Invitation to a Voyage: The
Hudson River at Fishkill, 1979-99, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
2010 Sylvia Sleigh: Working at Home,
Freymond-Guth & Co. Fine Arts, Zurich, Switzerland
2009 Sylvia Sleigh, I-20 Gallery, New York, NY
2007 Sylvia Sleigh, I-20 Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Sylvia Sleigh: Invitation to a Voyage, The
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
2005 Sylvia Sleigh: Portraits and Group
Portraits, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, ,
Staten Island, NY
2004 Sylvia Sleigh: New Work and Portraits of
Critics, SOHO20 Chelsea, New York, NY
2001 “ An
Unnerving Romanticism:” The Art of Sylvia Sleigh and Lawrence Alloway,
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
1999 Sylvia Sleigh: Invitation to a Voyage,
Deven Golden Fine Art, New York, NY
1995 Invitation to a Voyage and Other Works,
Sonia Zaks Gallery, Chicago, IL
1994 Sylvia Sleigh: New Paintings, Stiebel
Modern, New York, NY
1992 Sylvia Sleigh: Paintings from the
1970s, Stiebel Modern, New York, NY
1990 Sylvia Sleigh: Invitation to a Voyage
and Other Works, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Ball State University Art
Gallery, Muncie, IN; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1985 Sylvia Sleigh: Drawings, SOHO 20
Gallery, New York, NY
Invitation
to a Voyage: The Hudson River at Fishkill, G.W. Einstein Company, Inc., New
York, NY
Sylvia Sleigh: Nudes and
Portraits, Zaks Gallery, Chicago, IL
1983 Sylvia Sleigh Paints Lawrence Alloway,
G.W. Einstein Company, Inc., New York, NY
1982 Sylvia Sleigh: Portraits at the New
School, The New School Associates, New York, NY
1981 Sylvia Sleigh, Gallery 210, University
of Missouri, St. Louis, MO
1980 Sylvia Sleigh, Gallery 609, Denver, CO
Sylvia Sleigh, Marianne Deson
Gallery, Chicago, IL
Sylvia Sleigh: Paintings 1970-79,
Canton Art Institute, Canton, OH; Ball State University Art Gallery, Muncie,
IN; Hiestand Gallery, Miami University, Oxford, OH
Sylvia Sleigh: Recent
Paintings, G.W. Einstein Company, Inc., New York, NY
Sylvia Sleigh: Stones and
Flowers: Paintings and Watercolors, SOHO 20 Gallery, New York, NY
1979 Sylvia Sleigh: Portraits, Lowenstein
Library Gallery, Fordham University, New York, NY
1978 Sylvia Sleigh: Portraits, Housatonic
Community College, Bridgeport, CT
Sylvia Sleigh, A.I.R. Gallery,
New York, NY
1977 Sylvia Sleigh: Exhibition of
Paintings, Turman Gallery, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN; Dittmar
Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Sylvia Sleigh: Stones and Flowers,
Paul Klapper Library, Queens College, City University, Flushing, NY
1976 Sylvia Sleigh, Hopkins Hall, The Ohio
State University, Columbus, OH
Sylvia Sleigh, Kirkland Art Center,
Clinton, NY; Cortland College, State University of New York, Cortland, NY
Sylvia Sleigh, MATRIX 23, Wadsworth
Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Sylvia Sleigh, Deson-Zaks Gallery,
Chicago, IL
Sylvia Sleigh, A.I.R. Gallery, New
York, NY
1975 Sylvia Sleigh: Paintings, The New
School Associates, , New York, NY
1974 Sylvia Sleigh: Portraits and Nudes,
A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
Sylvia Sleigh (Women Artists
Series, Year 4), The Mabel Smith Douglass Library, Douglass College, Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, NJ
Sylvia Sleigh, Fine Arts
Center, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI
Sylvia Sleigh, Jacobs Ladder Gallery,
Washington, DC
1973 Sylvia Sleigh, SOHO 20 Gallery, New
York, NY
1972 Sylvia Sleigh: New Paintings,
Lerner-Misrachi Gallery, New York, NY
1971 Sylvia Sleigh: The Investiture of
Charles, Prince of Wales, 1969, Hemingway Galleries, New York, NY
1969 Sylvia Sleigh, Hemingway Galleries, New
York, NY
1968 Sylvia Sleigh, Hemingway Galleries, New
York, NY
1965 Sylvia Sleigh, Byron Gallery, New York,
NY
1963 Paintings by Sylvia Sleigh, New
Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
1962 Statues in the Crystal Palace Gardens:
Paintings by Sylvia Sleigh, The Trafford Gallery, London, England
1953 Sylvia Sleigh, Kensington Art Gallery,
London, England
PUBLIC
COLLECTIONS
National
Portrait Gallery, London
The Art
Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Akron
Art Museum, Akron, OH
Everson
Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
The
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
Mills
College, Oakland, CA
Milwaukee
Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
National
Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Portland
Art Museum, Portland, OR
Rowan
University Art Gallery, Glassboro, NJ
The
David and Alfred Smart Museum, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
University
of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Housatonic
Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT
Weatherspoon
Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
GRANTS
AND AWARDS
Lifetime
Achievement Award, Women’s Caucus for Art, 2011
Distinguished
Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement, College Art Association, 2008
Pollock-Krasner
Foundation Grant, 1985
National
Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artists Fellowship, 1982
In his own words:
“I wanted to give my perspective,
portraying both sexes with dignity and humanism. It was very necessary to do
this because women had often been painted as objects of desire in humiliating
poses. I don’t mind the ‘desire’ part, it’s the ‘object’ that’s not very nice.”
Representative
Galleries:
A.I.R Gallery
For
more Information:
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/feminist_art_base/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/arts/design/26sleigh.html?_r=2