12/02/2011

COMPLETE AN ANALYTICLE REVIEW OF THE WORK OF JENNY SAVILLE

Jenny Saville is a modern contemporary artist that focuses her work on human form, especially of large individuals. Jenny was born in 1970 in Cambridge UK. She studied at the Slade School of art in London. After graduating from SSoA jenny’s entire senior show at the Cooling Gallery in London was purchased by Charles Saatchi (advertising agency co-founder and well known collector of art) who also commissioned her for 2 years to continue with her work. Jenny now works as a tutor of figure painting at the SSoA.

Jenny’s work burst into the public eye after the controversial ‘sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. Jenny’s work is especially explicit in the detail it showcases of the subject matter she has explored. She produces detailed imagery of obesity, violence and gender through a single portrait or scene. The way she does this is by highlighting the deformities or unusual aspects of her models with high contrasts and deep use of dark skin tones, also through the use of reds to focus the viewer attention away from the blander skin tones.

Another technique implemented in Savilles work is the use of etching in the paint to reveal messages in her work. This can be seen in her painting ‘propped’ which depicts herself perched on a stool clutching her exaggerated knees. The text is a quote from the feminist writer Luce Irigary which reads “if we continue to speak in this sameness, speak as men have spoken for centuries, we will fail each other again.”

Yet another technique implemented by jenny is the use of glass in her photography to capture the human form. She places her subjects on a clear pane of glass and photographs them from underneath. This captures aspects of the body in greater detail such as the folds and curvatures of the body’s profile. This can be seen in the photographic image, ‘closed contact’.

The main material used by jenny to produce her work is oil paint on canvas. For a modern artist this can be seen as unusual as oil is seen to be a very traditional medium to use. She uses bold yet intricate brush strokes to bring flow into her imagery and really brings their individual features to light. This is then contrasted against a less focused and minimalistic backdrop to keep the viewers attention on the character and not its surroundings.

In conclusion Jenny Saville is a modern painter that works in a traditional style to produce graphic and provocative images that reflect the distressing and obscure issues of the modern world, particularly relating to feminism.