4/18/2021 Jenny Saville | Gagosian

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JENNY SAVILLE

Jenny Saville, Chapter (for Linda Nochlin), 2016–18

Charcoal on cotton duck canvas, 102 ½ × 93 inches (260.4 × 236.2 cm)
© Jenny Saville

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About

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4/18/2021 Jenny Saville | Gagosian

Human perception of the body is so acute and knowledgeable that the smallest hint of a body can
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trigger recognition.
—Jenny Saville
In her depictions of the human form, Jenny Saville transcends the boundaries of both
classical guration and modern abstraction. Oil paint, applied in heavy layers, becomes as
visceral as esh itself, each painted mark maintaining a supple, mobile life of its own. As
Saville pushes, smears, and scrapes the pigment over her large-scale canvases, the distinctions
between living, breathing bodies and their painted representations begin to collapse.
Born in  in Cambridge, England, Saville attended the Glasgow School of Art from  to
, spending a term at the University of Cincinnati in . Her studies focused her interest
in “imperfections” of esh, with all of its societal implications and taboos. Saville had been
captivated with these details since she was a child; she has spoken of seeing the work of Titian
and Tintoretto on trips with her uncle, and of observing the way that her piano teacher’s two
breasts—squished together in her shirt—became one large mass. While on a fellowship in
Connecticut in , Saville was able to observe a New York City plastic surgeon at work.
Studying the reconstruction of human esh was formative in her perception of the body—its
resilience, as well as its fragility. Her time with the surgeon fueled her examination into the
seemingly in nite ways that esh is transformed and dis gured. She explored medical
pathologies; viewed cadavers in the morgue; examined animals and meat; studied classical
and Renaissance sculpture; and observed intertwined couples, mothers with their children,
individuals whose bodies challenge gender dichotomies, and more.
A member of the Young British Artists (YBAs), the loose group of painters and sculptors who
came to prominence in the late s and early s, Saville reinvigorated contemporary
gurative painting by challenging the limits of the genre and raising questions about society’s
perception of the body and its potential. ough forward-looking, her work reveals a deep
awareness, both intellectual and sensory, of how the body has been represented over time and
across cultures—from antique and Hindu sculpture, to Renaissance drawing and painting, to
the work of modern artists such as Henri Matisse, Willem de Kooning, and Pablo Picasso. In
the striking faces, jumbled limbs, and tumbling folds of her paintings, one may perceive
echoes of Titian’s Venus of Urbino (c. ), Rubens’s Christ in the Descent from the
Cross (–), Manet’s Olympia (), and faces and bodies culled from magazines and
tabloid newspapers. Saville’s paintings refuse to t smoothly into an historical arc; instead,
each body comes forward, autonomous, voluminous, and always refusing to hide.

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Photo: Pal Hansen/Getty Images

JennySaville

Downloads
Selected exhibition history ()
Selected bibliography ()

Gagosian Premieres

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4/18/2021 Jenny Saville | Gagosian

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Tuesday, December , , pm EST

Jenny Saville
Featuring Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Simon Schama, and the Aaron Diehl Trio
For the third episode of the online event series Gagosian Premieres, Jenny Saville will celebrate her
exhibition Elpis at Gagosian New York with painter Nathaniel Mary Quinn and historian Simon
Schama, with a performance by the Aaron Diehl Trio, who will play music by Philip Glass as well
as a new composition inspired by the work on view.

Watch Now

Exhibitions

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Jenny Saville Extended through July ,  Menu

Elpis Jenny Saville
November –December ,  Ancestors
 Madison Avenue, New York
May –July , 
West st Street, New York

Extended through July ,  Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville Oxyrhynchus
Erota June –July , 
April –July ,  Britannia Street, London
Davies Street, London

Jenny Saville Jenny Saville

Continuum April –May , 
September –October ,  Davies Street, London
 Madison Avenue, New York

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Jenny Saville Jenny Saville & Glen Luchford

Migrants Closed Contact
April –May ,  January –February , 
 West th Street, New York Beverly Hills

See all Exhibitions for Jenny Saville

Fairs, Events & Announcements

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Artist Spotlight Menu

Jenny Saville
July –, 
Support
In her depictions of the human form, Jenny Saville transcends the bo
Masked guration and modern abstraction. Oil paint, applied in heavy layers
Jenny Saville itself, each painted mark maintaining a supple, mobile life of its own.
scrapes the pigment over her large-scale canvases, the distinctions be
Jenny Saville and twenty-three otherand
leading gures inrepresentations
their painted the arts, education,
begincommunications,
to collapse. and law
were photographed wearing masks for Masked, a portrait series by Joanna Vestey. e limited-edition
prints are being sold through MarchPhoto: courtesy the artist
, , to raise funds for AT e Bus, a charity that provides art
therapy programs to school-age children in Oxfordshire and London out of a re tted double-decker
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Museum Exhibitions

Closed
Inspiraatio—Nykytaide & Klassikot
June –September , 
On View Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki
ateneum. Closed
Person of Interest
rough July , 
Jenny Saville
is exhibition, whose title translates to in
Inspiration—Contemporary PortrayingArt and Classics,Pregnancy: From Holbein to
Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–
explores contemporary art inspired by iconic
Lincoln Social Media
masterpieces. Here, the original works are
sheldonartmuseum.org referenced through replicas,January –August
prints, plaster casts,, 
and an abundance
Exploring nuances in portraiture from the late Foundling Museum,
of archival materials. is London
exhibitiontesting
nineteenth century to today—and the fromfoundlingmuseum.org.uk
has traveled the
Nationalmuseum,
very de nition of the genre—Person of Interest Stockholm, under paintings,
rough the title prints, photographs, objects,
presents depictions of theInspiration: Iconic Works. Work
literal and abstracted and by Georgfrom the eenth century to the
clothing
body from Sheldon’s rich Baselitz,
holdingsGlenn Brown, Jeff Koons,
and selected presentand day,Jenny
this show aims to explore the
Saville is included.
loans. is exhibition asks open-ended questions different ways in which pregnancy was, or was
about self-fashioning, cultural memory,
Installation gender not, represented
view, Inspiraatio—Nykytaide & Klassikot, in art and society; how shiing
identity, and the performance of identity.
Ateneum, In Gallery,social
Finnish National
attitudes have impacted depictions of
Helsinki, June 18–
doing so, it prompts conversations about race and pregnant women; how the possibility of death in
September 20, 2020. Artwork, left to right: © Glenn Brown, ©
Wolfe von Lenkiewicz. Photo: Hannu Pakarinen
representation, institutional power, and lived childbirth brought additional tension to such
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experiences. Work by Nathaniel Mary Quinn,
Jenny Saville, and Cindy Sherman is included.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Lil’ Barbara, 2017 © Nathaniel Mary
Quinn
representations; and how more recent images,
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which oen re ect increased female agency and
empowerment, still remain highly charged. Work
by Jenny Saville is included.
Jenny Saville, Electra, 2012–19 © Jenny Saville. Photo:
Prudence Cuming Associates

See all Museum Exhibitions for Jenny Saville

GAGOSIAN SHOP / JENNY SAVILLE

Press
Jenny Saville with Jason Rosenfeld
by Jason Rosenfeld
Brooklyn Rail, February , 
Online

Jenny Saville at Gagosian
by Jonathan Goodman
Whitehot Magazine, January , 
Online

Betye Saar’s Sketchbooks at Morgan Library and Museum, Jenny Saville Paintings at Gagosian,
Highlight New York’s Holiday Season by Chad Scott
Forbes, December , 
Online

Jenny Saville: portrait of a feminist
by Jan Dalley
Financial Times, November , 
Online

Artist Jenny Saville Takes Us Inside Her Studio and Reveals Insights Into Gender Equality
by Anny Shaw
Hong Kong Tatler, November , 
Online

Gagosian Goes Net ix? e Mega-Gallery Is Creating Original Content at Pairs Artists With
Luminaries Like Malcolm Gladwell and Jeff Tweedy by Sarah Cascone
Artnet, October , 
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4/18/2021 Jenny Saville | Gagosian

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
A brush with... Jenny Saville
by Ben Luke
Art Newspaper, August , 
Online
Jenny Saville, Laura van der Heijden, e art of the deadline
by Stig Abell
BBC, April , 
Online
How Jenny Saville Changed the Way We View the Female Form in Painting
by Alina Cohen
Artsy, October , 
Online

Jenny Saville’s New Paintings Are About Motherhood and MeToo
by Carl Swanson
Vulture, July , 
Online

Jenny Saville: Ancestors
by Jason Rosenfeld
Brooklyn Rail, June , 
Online

My  Favorite Books: Jenny Saville
T: e New York Times Style Magazine, August , 

London – Jenny Saville: “Erota” at Gagosian Gallery rough July th, 
by A. Corrigan
Art Observed, May , 

Jenny Saville: 'I used to be anti-beauty'
by Emine Saner
e Guardian, April , 

Five of the best… new art shows
by Jonathan Jones
e Guardian, April , 


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