Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting

Jenny Saville is not usually thought of as a conceptual artist: her interest in figuration set her apart from her YBA contemporaries in the 1990s and early 2000s. But she has often spoken of her art as being less to do with portrait painting than portraits of painting itself: Saville is as interested in the workings of paint as she is in her subjects. Often, ostensibly figurative paintings slip into abstraction, especially when viewed up close. The title of this exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery – which is, perhaps surprisingly, her first solo museum show in the UK – alludes to Saville’s conceptual approach and brings together some 45 works from all periods of her career (20 June–7 September). These range from Propped (1992), the first of her works to be snapped up by Charles Saatchi, to more recent paintings, which evoke the textures and filters of camera-phone photography while continuing to explore how flesh can be rendered in paint.

Find out more from the NPG’s website.
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Aleppo (2017–18), Jenny Saville. Collection of the artist. Courtesy National Galleries of Scotland; © Jenny Saville

Hyphen (1999), Jenny Saville. Private collection. Courtesy Gagosian; © Jenny Saville

Rosetta II (2005–06), Jenny Saville. Private collection. Courtesy Gagosian; © Jenny Saville