Jenny Saville: Painting the Self
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.
Installation Views
Installation view
Artwork © Jenny Saville. Photo: Rob McKeever
Installation view
Artwork © Jenny Saville. Photo: Rob McKeever
Installation view
Artwork © Jenny Saville. Photo: Rob McKeever
Installation view
Artwork © Jenny Saville. Photo: Rob McKeever
Installation view
Artwork © Jenny Saville. Photo: Rob McKeever
Installation view
Artwork © Jenny Saville. Photo: Rob McKeever
Works Exhibited
Jenny Saville
Meridian, 2019–20
Oil on canvas, 59 ⅛ × 47 ¼ inches (150 × 120 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Second Nature, 2020
Oil on linen, 90 ⅝ × 82 ¾ inches (230 × 210 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Cascade, 2020
Oil on linen, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Virtual, 2020
Oil on canvas, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Chasah, 2020
Oil on linen, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Lethe, 2020
Oil on canvas, 59 ⅛ × 47 ¼ inches (150 × 120 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Requiem (Akhmatova), 2020
Acrylic and oil on linen, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Prism, 2020
Pastel and charcoal on canvas, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Volta, 2020
Oil on linen, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Arcadia, 2020
Acrylic and oil on linen, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Rupture, 2020
Acrylic and oil on linen, 78 ¾ × 63 inches (200 × 160 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
Jenny Saville
Elpis, 2020
Oil on canvas, in 3 parts, overall: 59 ⅛ × 141 ¾ inches (150 × 360 cm)
© Jenny Saville. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates
About
Only Elpis [Hope] was left within her unbreakable house,
she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not
fly away. Before [she could], Pandora replaced the
lid of the jar. This was the will of aegis-bearing
Zeus the Cloudgatherer.
—Hesiod, Works and Days
Gagosian is pleased to present Elpis, an exhibition of new paintings by Jenny Saville. This exhibition marks the reopening of the gallery at 980 Madison Avenue following the pandemic-related shutdown in March.
Saville’s monumental portraits explore the human body and its fascinating aesthetic potential. Her bold and sensuous impressions of surface, line, and mass oscillate between rational and irrational forms, capturing a unique kind of realism specific to the twenty-first century. Titled after the ancient Greek personification of hope left behind at the bottom of Pandora’s box—a spirit traditionally associated with the burdens of human suffering, rather than positivity—the paintings in Elpis are grounded in tangible realities while reaching toward their mythological dimensions.
Though resolutely of its time, Saville’s art speaks to a profound reckoning with the primordial lineage of humanity. The ancient world comprises one of her most enduring sources of inspiration. In the past, she has presented the human figure as classical sculpture, melding marble and flesh through a complex layering of body parts and transhistorical artistic tributes. In the massive canvases presented at her 2014 solo exhibition Oxyrhynchus at Gagosian, Britannia Street, London, Saville intertwined palimpsestic silhouettes and fleshly forms, alluding to the trove of documents and literature that lay dormant in the famed titular Egyptian archeological site for millennia.
In Conversation
Jenny Saville and Martin Gayford
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.
Jenny Saville: Latent
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.
Jenny Saville: A cyclical rhythm of emergent forms
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.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2020
The Winter 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jenny Saville’s Prism (2020) on its cover.
Shortlist
Five Preoccupations: Jenny Saville
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.
In Conversation
Jenny Saville and Nicholas Cullinan
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.
In Conversation
Sally Mann and Jenny Saville
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.
Visions of the Self: Jenny Saville on Rembrandt
Jenny Saville reveals the process behind her new self-portrait, painted in response to Rembrandt’s masterpiece Self-Portrait with Two Circles.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2019
The Spring 2019 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Red Pot with Lute Player #2 by Jonas Wood on its cover.
Jenny Saville Now
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.
Jenny Saville: Ancestors
In this video, Jenny Saville speaks about Ancestors and her new works currently on view at Gagosian, West 21st Street, New York.
In Conversation
Jenny Saville and Dr. Simon Groom
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.
Jenny Saville on Willem de Kooning
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.
Desire
Diana Widmaier Picasso, curator of the exhibition Desire, reflects on the history of eroticism in art.
Jenny Saville: Erota
Richard Calvocoressi discusses the inspiration behind the artist’s new body of work.
Egon Schiele—Jenny Saville
Lauren Mahony previews the Kunsthaus Zürich exhibition, which paired the works of Jenny Saville and Egon Schiele together.
