Review - Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting
Drift by Jenny Saville, 2020-2022 © Jenny Saville
By Erin Deborah Waks
I knew I was going to love the new Jenny Saville exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery before I even set foot in the building. I had seen all the marketing (mainly lining the escalators of various Tube stations, I admit, but then where else would one find art inspiration in a city as full of creativity as London?) and I’d caught more than a glimpse of the crowning jewel of the collection, Drift.
I knew the combination of colour and faces, as well as the perfect blend of realism and abstract, would be right up my street. I was right. What I hadn’t envisaged was quite how dark much of her work is.
Saville rose to prominence in the 1990s and has barely left the front lines of the art world since. Her particular style of painting - figurative, with thick layers of paint, and bringing to light the oft-ugly human form - is intriguing from not only an aesthetic point of view but, as the exhibit aims to unveil, from the perspective of the art of painting itself.
In other words, yes, her paintings are thought-provoking and captivating to look at, but they also demonstrate the artist’s love for the act of creating art itself. By tracking her various works - from charcoal drawings to imposing oil paintings - and her numerous subjects - female nudes and portraits of almost-drowning youngsters - she demonstrates her skill and range while simultaneously tracking her growing artistic prowess over time.
National Portrait Gallery
For me, what was most provoking was the way she creates art that should be beautiful - indeed, the colour, form and subject practically beg you to look - and yet somehow fails to live up to an aesthetic ideal. Either the subject has a look of sadness, or the curves and crevices of the human body elucidate an element of disgust, or the abstract layers of paint emanate a visceral, heavy odour coming up from the canvas itself.
Many artists profess to be capturing and unravelling standards of beauty, but for me, Saville reigns supreme. She creates art that should be objectively beautiful, lures you in from afar as such, and yet never quite manages to be that perfect kind of beautiful we search for.
Explore: Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting - National Portrait Gallery
