ARTWORK:
Pluto: Robert Lucy (1944) by Welsh-born naturalized American realist painter, Sylvia Sleigh (1916-2010).
PAINTING – oil on linen
2.29 x 1.37 m, 7′ 6″ x 4′ 6″ approx
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Sleigh’s practice as a portraitist reached a pinnacle in the 1970s and 80s during Second Wave Feminism as they questioned power dynamics in the subject-object paradigm of viewership through her rendering of male nude subjects in feminine poses. As the renowned artist Joan Semmel wrote about Sleigh’s male nudes, the subject “is used as a vehicle to express erotic feelings, just as male artists have always used the female nude.”
This particular male nude, Pluto: Robert Lucy, is one in which her subject inhabits the character of Pluto, God of the Underworld. Rather than existing within a domestic space, like many of Sleigh’s other nudes, Robert Lucy, a friend and fellow artist, confidently leans against a tree, sporting a cape, and staring off to the side. This large, full-length nude is one of the largest and most complex of Sleigh’s career and highlights her interpretation of friends through mythology within the medium of paint.
– Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts