Scheherezade: Cynthia Mailman

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Sylvia Sleigh reinvigorated large-scale portrait painting in the 1960s along with artists such as Chuck Close and Philip Pearlstein. She also forged new territory in a male-dominated field, choosing to paint both male and female monumental nudes. “One reason for a woman to do large figure compositions,” said Sleigh, “is to say ‘Look here, yes we can!’” Here Sleigh depicts her friend Cynthia Mailman, an artist who was an active member of the feminist movement, as the legendary heroine Scheherezade. The storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights, Scheherezade faced death by the Persian king, who executed his wives nightly to prevent them from being unfaithful. She began telling him a story every night, leaving him in suspense for the ending, until he fell in love with her and made her his queen.

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