Legend: Elaine Shipman

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This painting is a lovingly depicted portrait of the dancer Elaine Shipman (1939-2013), a fixture on the New York modern and contemporary dance scene from the 1960s until her death. She studied at the Martha Graham School and danced with Merce Cunningham and other forward-thinking luminaries. Here, Shipman is pictured seated on a fur-lined chair inside painter Sylvia Sleigh's residence in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The painting’s title and Shipman’s black fur backdrop were inspired by the Blackglama mink advertisements of the 1970s, in which famous women were pictured in dark fur coats under the slogan "What becomes a legend most?”