Sylvia Sleigh was a Welsh-born naturalised American realist

Realism (visual arts)

Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...

 painter. After studying at the Brighton School of Art

Faculty of Arts and Architecture (University of Brighton)

The Faculty of Arts in the University of Brighton is a centre of education in the creative arts, architecture, design and humanities. In 2009 it took its new name, replacing the former Faculty of Arts & Architecture, embracing new subject areas from departments in Literature, Languages and...

, she had her first solo exhibition in 1953 at the Kensington Art Gallery

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

.

She married Lawrence Alloway

Lawrence Alloway

Lawrence Alloway was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from the 1960s. In the 1950s he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an influential writer and curator in the US...

, an art critic, before moving to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the early 1960s when he became a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...

.

Around 1970, from feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 principles, she painted a series of works reversing stereotypical artistic themes by featuring naked men in poses usually associated with women. Some directly alluded to existing works, such as her gender-reversed version of Ingres

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest...

's The Turkish Bath (the reclining man is her husband, Laurence Alloway). Philip Golub Reclining alludes similarly to the Rokeby Venus by Velázquez

Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...

.

Other works equalise the roles of men and women, such as the 1976 Concert Champetre, in which all the characters are nude, unlike its similarly composed namesake by Titian

Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...

 (sometimes credited to Giorgione

Giorgione

Giorgione was a Venetian painter of the High Renaissance in Venice, whose career was cut off by his death at a little over thirty. Giorgione is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are acknowledged for certain to be his work...

), in which only the women are. She comments on her works: "I feel that my paintings stress the equality of men & women (women & 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".

In 2007, in an interview with Brian Sherwin

Brian Sherwin

Brian Sherwin is an American art critic, writer, and blogger with a degree from Illinois College in 2003. Sherwin is the Senior Editor for the artist social networking site myartspace, where he has written an extensive interview series with emerging and established visual artists...

 for Myartspace, Sylvia Sleigh was asked if gender equality issues in the mainstream art world, and the world in general, had changed for the better. Sylvia answered, "I do think things have improved for women in general there are many more women in government, in law and corporate jobs, but its very difficult in the art world for women to find a gallery". According to Sylvia there is still more that needs to be done in order for men and women to be treated as equals in the art world.

External links

• Official website
• Sylvia Sleigh at the Grove Dictionary of Art
  Grove Dictionary of Art
  Grove Art Online, formerly The Dictionary of Art but usually known as The Grove Dictionary of Art, is a large encyclopedia of art, now part of the online reference publications of Oxford University Press, and previously a 34-volume printed encyclopedia when last published on paper in 1996...
  
  
• Sylvia Sleigh at Artcyclopedia
  ArtCyclopedia
  Artcyclopedia is an online database of museum-quality fine art founded by Canadian John Malyon. The Artcyclopedia only deals with art that can be viewed online, and indexes 2,300 art sites , with links to around 180,000 artworks by 8,500 renowned artists. The site has also started to compile a list...
  
  
• Sylvia Sleigh Interview in Art Interview Online Magazine
• Interview with Myartspace