Jenny Saville: Contemporary

'I want to be a painter of modern life, and modern bodies' - Jenny Saville

Massively disturbing: the painter Jenny Saville

Bleech 2011

Passage 2006

Jenny Saville, 1970-, is a contemporary artist that focuses of painting the modern interpretation of the human form. Jenny Saville works against the male dominant portrays of men that have been around since the 16th century starting with artists such as Manet and Titan. These artists had the interpretation of the female body being represented as angels with the glowing flawless skin; these women have been painted with a high status however has a passive gaze upon the audience, creating this suggestion that women are weak without men. This representation of women is something that Saville is trying defend she is creating women with mismatch genital and grotesque portraits with empowered and smug expression, this portrayal is something that is shocking even for the contextual viewers to fathom. This sense of mismatched genital is something that creates a great sense of discomfort for the audience as it is unexpected from a female portrait. Saville uses Paint to manipulate the skin and body, she create this modern depiction with broad brush strokes and visible marks. She focuses on painting the true form, and to do this she creates a narrative using the harsh brush lines. This sense of weight is something that is accentuated by the use of impasto; Saville uses impasto to create this sense of importance . Saville intends for the viewer to be disgusted with the super imposed skin texture created by the thick visible brush strokes. These heavy impastoed nude portraits have great qualities and similarities to the work of Lucien Freud due to the colour scheme and the use of technique. Both artist depict skin using the paint, they both manipulate the paint to create a narrative behind the subject and, metaphorical meaning. Jenny Saville uses this impasto to create textured and unwelcoming skin. Saville has use blue colours to create the background, blue has the symbolism of a hospital which is again suggested by the mismatching genitals creating this obvious and clear narrative and meaning for the sitter. This is demonstrated clearly in the portrait Passage 2004. This is the most disturbing portrait created by Saville as it is not the expected nude that would be presented in a gallery. Saville has drawn the viewer’s attention toward the genitals with the harsh thick black brush marks against the brilliant white highlight of the thigh, by doing this Saville is capturing the viewers attention. Saville has used a heavy application of impasto around the genitals to accentuate the importance of this element to the portrait. Saville work is a great example for the growth of impasto as she is all about create body which are real she focuses of painting models that are bigger or different, this is similar to Lucien Freud. The affect of painting subject like this and use a dense and heavy application creates a realistic yet slightly obscured interpretation of weight and density.