Jenny Saville

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Lore & Background

Saville was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, and attended Lilley and Stone School (now The Newark Academy) in Newark, Nottinghamshire. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1992, during which she was awarded a six-month scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, where she enrolled in a course in women's studies. She partially credits her artistic interest in big bodies to the works of Pablo Picasso. Charles Saatchi offered Saville an 18-month contract, supporting her while she created new works to be exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery. In 1994, the exhibition Young British Artists III displayed Saville's self-portrait Plan (1993) as the signature piece. In 1994, Saville observed plastic surgery operations in New York City. Her published sketches and documents include surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, deformity correction, disease, and transgender patients. Between 1996 and 2002, Saville collaborated with photographer Glen Luchford to produce Closed Contact, a series of large photographic prints which depict Saville's nude body pressed up against a clear panel, exploring femininity and the challenges of perceiving the female body.

Reader's Guide

Jenny Saville's significance lies in her challenge to conventional representations of the female nude. Her work subverts many beauty standards and invokes contemporary feminist theory, while often utilizing references from art history. She is known for massive canvases, usually six by six feet or more, and works with strongly pigmented oil paint applied in heavy layers. Her post-painterly style has been compared to that of Lucian Freud and Rubens. Recurring figures in her work range from mothers, children, transgender people, burn victims, and cosmetic surgery patients. Saville states she is 'drawn to bodies that emanate a sort of state of in-betweenness: hermaphrodite, a transvestite, a carcass, a half-alive/half-dead head.' Her record-breaking auction price for Propped (1992) in 2018—selling for £9.5 million, well above its £3-£4 million estimate—cemented her status as the most expensive living female artist. Her paintings have also appeared on two album covers for the Manic Street Preachers: Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face) on The Holy Bible (1994), and Stare (2005) on Journal for Plague Lovers (2009), the latter deemed 'inappropriate' by UK supermarkets.

Did You Know?

• Saville partially credits her artistic interest in big bodies to the works of Pablo Picasso.
• In 1994, she observed plastic surgery operations in New York City and published sketches including surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, and transgender patients.
• Her painting Propped (1992) sold at Sotheby's in 2018 for £9.5 million, well above its £3-£4 million estimate.
• Saville's painting Stare (2005) was used for the Manic Street Preachers' 2009 album Journal for Plague Lovers; UK supermarkets stocked the CD in a plain slipcase after the cover was deemed 'inappropriate'.
• Between 1996 and 2002, she collaborated with photographer Glen Luchford on Closed Contact, a series of large photographic prints depicting her nude body pressed against a clear panel.