Kingston essay 2

Jenny Saville, one of Britains most celebrated artists.  Whose work carries a strong

Political message.  She knows exactly how confrontational she is being.  She makes

Onlookers feel uncomfortable. She works on the perception that we believe our body

is six foot wide, when it isn’t.

Jenny has caught on to this feeling that women only consider themselves attractive if

we can form to a certain kind of shape. She’s managed to create something so

powerful that you have an emotional connection. 

Jenny says that it is not a campaign to say that fat is okay or fat should be accepted, its

just there are difficulties to being a certain size.  We always have an agenda which

comes from the media, especially fashion magazines, that says we should look a

certain way.  Sergio Miller says, ‘Jenny Saville’s massive nudes aren’t a tour-de-force by a young painter, they raise important issues of how we view the female form. (Sergio Miller 1994)

Jenny Saville’s paintings of female nudes invoke the history of easel painting while 

betraying her fascination with the squeaky clean work of fashion and beauty as

conveyed through photographs. (David Brittain, Dec 1994-1995)

‘Plan’ 1993’ has contours refer to the marks made prior to liposuction.  Sergio Miller

says  ‘Even without this formal device to reinforce the three-dimensional, the paint

work alone represents an almost thermal definition of the naked body.  Density,

pressure and temperature are as accurately described as on a weather map. 

If Saville was simply to be engaging visual force in support of political correctness,

we might acknowledge the skill but pass on the message.  But she does more. 

Consciously, she has added another voice to the long debate on the role of female

Nudes in western art. (Sergio Miller, 1994)

‘Propped’ 1992 portrays a huge women incongruously perched on a tiny pedestal.  Her

hands claw at enormous thighs as though wishing to tear the meat from the bone.  The

painting is deliberately ambiguous.  Saville neither invites scorn nor begs for

bearance.  We can not take pity.

David Cohen argues through out his entire article in Modern Painters (spring 1994)

why did Charles Saatchi choose to support an artist who was so new.  Since having

artists such as Daminan Hirst and Francis Bacon, he believes ‘being in the Saatchi

collection is almost damaging.’ (David Cohen 1994)

We live in a time now where painting isn’t appreciated.  “This century, have changed

the nature of artistic production in such a way as to work against, for example, a

painter lavishing time and effort on a major statement.  Instead, there is a

concentration on flooding the market with works that are merely saleable.  High

production is essential and unless an artist paints superficially, or in long series of

variations on a theme, he won’t make and adequate living. (Sergio Miller, 1994)

‘It will never be in the forefront of art again.’  ‘It is ‘painting’ and the words are

Jenny Saville’s’.  ‘So many people think that the time is over for painting,’ she

continues with a grin of resignation, ‘and I have to admit that I’ve got doubts too.’ (Jenny Saville1997-1998)

Her source material is significant, the way she can look at a photograph taken by Glen

Luchford, and turn it into a painting.  When David Brittain interviewed Jenny

he asked- ‘Photography is a very different medium from painting.  What

advantages does each have over the other?’  Jenny-‘I think that photographs were

applicable to what I wanted to achieve.  I’ve got a real passion for paint, I am

interested in the body and painting flesh.  I feel more in touch with painting, I don’t

feel quite as in touch with photograph.’ (David Brittain 1994-1995)

Because Jenny is so disheartened by this it might be the end of the painting tradition

as we know it.  Which I think is a dishonor.  Jenny- ‘Some people today dismiss your

work solely on the basis that it is painting.  It’s difficult to retain your confidence

surrounded by so many doubters and negative pressures.’ (Jenny Saville 1997-1998)

Sergio Miller says, ‘She is likely to be looked upon as a dinosaur stoically refusing to

accept that bad painting is the equal of good.’  (Sergio Miller 1994) She will no doubt

be recorded in history for her work exhibited in the Saatchi, but will she ever change

her subject matter?

Miller also says ‘I believe her when she tells me she has no career ambitions except to

be able to paint better.’ (Sergio Miller 1994)

She admires Sargent’s painting but thinks that his subjects unworthy of such a talent. 

Clearly, she is a person of natural good taste with a social conscience.

I think her work is powerful, but not enough to change women’s minds and how they

think of beauty.  Because I think that the ideal has got so deep within us that it is very

hard to shift.  Jenny admits that she like anyone else reads beauty magazines and

becomes seduced like anyone else.