Sylvia Sleigh Retrospective at MAMCO Geneva Reimagines the Canon

The MAMCO in Geneva has launched 'Refaire Collection', a project addressing the fact that only 21% of works in its collection are by female artists. As part of this initiative, a retrospective dedicated to Welsh painter Sylvia Sleigh (1916-2010) is on view until October 25. Sleigh, who moved to New York in the early 1960s with her husband, art critic Lawrence Alloway, is known for her figurative paintings that often reversed traditional gender roles in art history. The centerpiece of the show is 'The Turkish Bath' (1973), a monumental work that reimagines Ingres' famous painting of the same name, replacing the female figures with nude male artists, curators, and friends, including Alloway, John Perreault, and Carter Ratcliff. Sleigh's work is characterized by a slow, meticulous technique reminiscent of Flemish painting, and her portraits are seen as dialogues between the artist, the sitter, and the viewer, granting the subjects full subjectivity. The retrospective at MAMCO argues that Sleigh's art demonstrates that the underrepresentation of women in collections is not due to a lack of talent but to a canon that has marginalized certain practices. The exhibition underscores that the canon can be revised based on artistic quality, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or other extra-artistic factors.