Jenny Saville
Shift, 1996–97
Oil on canvas, 130 × 130 inches (330 × 330 cm)
Jenny Saville
Hyphen, 1999
Oil on canvas, 108 × 144 inches (274.3 × 365.8 cm)
Jenny Saville
Matrix, 1999
Oil on canvas, 84 × 120 inches (213.4 × 304.8 cm)
Jenny Saville
Fulcrum, 1999
Oil on canvas, 103 × 192 inches (261.6 × 487.7 cm)
Jenny Saville
Ruben's Flap, 1999
Oil on canvas, 120 × 96 inches (304.8 × 243.8 cm)
Gagosian is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of the acclaimed young British painter Jenny Saville. Since first appearing on the London art scene in 1994 as the star of the Saatchi Gallery’s Young British Artists III and Sensation exhibitions, Saville has been recognized as one of the most thought-provoking and technically accomplished talents of her generation.
In this long-awaited exhibition of her new work, two years in the making, the distinctive nature of Saville’s giant, fleshy nudes is both surprising and provocative; her virtuoso nudes are reminiscent of the old masters, yet employed to question societal obsession with an idealized, almost robotic, image of the female form. By portraying these “images of extreme humanness” that are so out of place in an anxious culture obsessed with eternal youth and beauty, Saville confronts the very essence of what it means to have an active mind in a decaying, dying body.
Characteristic of Saville’s work, her paint becomes flesh as it evokes the feel and touch of the body, its smell and material presence. Freed from the conventions of feminine delicacy, her gargantuan figures cascade across the canvas and into the viewer’s physical space. The vast images of corpulent bodies are deliberately ambiguous as the paintings impose themselves on the viewer and surround the body that is looking at them. The viewer cannot escape the implications of their physical being.
Gagosian hosted a conversation between Jenny Saville and Martin Gayford, art critic and author, in conjunction with the exhibition Friends and Relations: Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London. Gayford also spoke with the artist about her works in the exhibition Jenny Saville: Latent at Gagosian, rue de Castiglione, Paris.
In this video, Jenny Saville describes the evolution of her practice inside her latest exhibition, Latent, at Gagosian, Paris. She addresses the genesis of the title and reflects on the anatomy of a painting.
An exhibition curated by Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento, Florence, pairs artworks by Jenny Saville with artists of the Italian Renaissance. On view across that city at the Museo Novecento, the Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, the Museo degli Innocenti, and the Museo di Casa Buonarroti through February 20, 2022, the presentation features paintings and drawings by Saville from the 1990s through to work made especially for the occasion. Here, Risaliti reflects on the resonances and reverberations brought about by these pairings.
Jenny Saville speaks with Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, about her latest self-portrait, her studio practice, and the historical painters to whom she continually returns.
The Winter 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jenny Saville’s Prism (2020) on its cover.
Jenny Saville shares a selection of the books, films, and more that have been her companions in the quiet of the shutdowns in recent months and as she looks ahead to a new exhibition next year.
Jenny Saville speaks with Nicholas Cullinan, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, from her studio. They discuss portraiture, her latest work, and her art historical influences, as well as the shifting nature of perception in the age of digital communication.
The two artists discuss being drawn to difficult subjects, the effects of motherhood on their practice, embracing chance, and their shared adoration of Cy Twombly.
Jenny Saville reveals the process behind her new self-portrait, painted in response to Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles.
The Spring 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Red Pot with Lute Player #2 by Jonas Wood on its cover.
On the occasion of a major survey of the artist’s work, Dr. Simon Groom, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, studies the evolution of Jenny Saville’s practice.
In this video, Jenny Saville speaks about Ancestors and her new works currently on view at Gagosian, West 21st Street, New York.
Jenny Saville discusses the beginnings and evolutions of her painting practice with Dr. Simon Groom, Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. She speaks candidly on her endless passion for painting the figure, the beauty of struggle, motherhood, and the artists that have inspired her.
In 2013, the exhibition Willem de Kooning: Ten Paintings, 1983–1985 explored the legendary artist’s late work. For the catalogue accompanying the presentation, Jenny Saville spoke on the gestures and elemental elegance of these paintings.
Diana Widmaier Picasso, curator of the exhibition Desire, reflects on the history of eroticism in art.
Richard Calvocoressi discusses the inspiration behind the artist’s new body of work.
Lauren Mahony previews the Kunsthaus Zürich exhibition, which paired the works of Jenny Saville and Egon Schiele together.
