Jenny Saville
The Anatomy of Painting
National Portrait Gallery Publications (Publisher)
Published on 12. June 2025
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-1-85514-594-8 (ISBN)
Description
'Saville can be appreciated as one of the greatest of any era' ***** Review of Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, National Portrait Gallery - Evening Standard
Jenny Saville's large-scale depictions of the human form are a celebration of flesh and paint, figure and abstraction. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting brings together works from across the artist's career, ranging from pencil drawings to monumental paintings in oil.
The British artist Jenny Saville is one of today's leading painters, for whom painting the human body gives the artist 'the possibility to work in both an abstract and figurative way'. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting accompanies Saville's first major museum exhibition, showcasing over 50 works from throughout her career in a broadly chronological framework. Essays consider the development of Saville's practice, marking key moments and the strong connection she makes to art history, while a conversation with the artist gives us a glimpse into her life in the studio, her working methods and influences.
Jenny Saville's large-scale depictions of the human form are a celebration of flesh and paint, figure and abstraction. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting brings together works from across the artist's career, ranging from pencil drawings to monumental paintings in oil.
The British artist Jenny Saville is one of today's leading painters, for whom painting the human body gives the artist 'the possibility to work in both an abstract and figurative way'. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting accompanies Saville's first major museum exhibition, showcasing over 50 works from throughout her career in a broadly chronological framework. Essays consider the development of Saville's practice, marking key moments and the strong connection she makes to art history, while a conversation with the artist gives us a glimpse into her life in the studio, her working methods and influences.
Reviews / Votes
'Portraits so powerful they override reality.' - The Guardian 'A must-see... filled with inspired works.' - The Times 'If you see just one art show this summer, make it this... includes one of the great paintings of our age. Jenny Saville is a genius.' - The Telegraph 'They make most other contemporary figurative paintings look pretty amateurish and painfully lacking in ambition... Britain's greatest artist in waiting.' - The Independent 'The greatest new art show in town... Saville can be appreciated as one of the greatest of any era.' - Evening StandardMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
190 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 301 mm
Width: 244 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
1590 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-85514-594-8 (9781855145948)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sarah Howgate is Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her previous exhibitions and publications include David Hockney Portraits (2006), Lucian Freud Portraits (2012), Friendship Portraits: Chantal Joffe and Isabel Myserscough (2015) Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask (2017), Tacita Dean PORTRAIT (2018) and David Hockney: Drawing from Life (2020).
John Elderfield, independent curator and art historian, is Chief Curator Emeritus of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he organised major retrospectives devoted to Schwitters (1985), Matisse (1992), de Kooning (2011), and many others. He curated the exhibitions, Cezanne Portraits, for the National Portrait Gallery in 2017, and Cezanne: The Rock & Quarry Paintings, for the Princeton University Art Museum in 2020. He has published some thirty books and over one hundred essays on topics ranging from Chardin to T.S. Eliot and Bob Dylan to Walter de Maria's Lightning Field; and, most recently, a comprehensive monograph on Helen Frankenthaler.
Andrea Karnes is Chief Curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. She has organised several major exhibitions of contemporary art, including Women Painting Women (2022), Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera (2018), KAWS: WHERE THE END STARTS (2016), Mexico Inside Out: Themes in Art Since 1990 (2013), Hubbard / Birchler: No Room to Answer (2008), Pretty Baby (2007), Pierre Huyghe: One Million + Kingdoms (2004), and Julie Bozzi: Landscapes (2003). As curator of the Modern's FOCUS series from 2005 to 2015, Karnes curated thirty solo exhibitions of international artists working in a range of media.
Roxane Gay is the New York Times Bestselling author, a professor, editor, and social commentator. Her writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger.
Emanuele Coccia is a philosopher and lecturer at EHESS, Paris. He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Duesseldorf, Columbia and Harvard. He is the author of La Vie sensible, The Life of Plants, Metamorphoses and Philosophie de la maison. He recently participated in the making of animated videos, such as Quercus (2020, with Formafantasma), Heaven in Matter (2021, with Faye Formisano) and The Portal of Mysteries (2022, with Dotdotdot). In 2019 he took part in the Trees exhibition held at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris. He edited the catalogue for the 23rd Triennale di Milano, Unknown Unknowns: An Introduction to Mysteries.
Sally Mann is an American photographer and writer. Her work is held in many notable collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Mann's Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs (Little, Brown, 2015) was named a finalist for the 2015 National Book Awards and in 2016 won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022 and is a Prix Pictect laureate.
John Elderfield, independent curator and art historian, is Chief Curator Emeritus of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he organised major retrospectives devoted to Schwitters (1985), Matisse (1992), de Kooning (2011), and many others. He curated the exhibitions, Cezanne Portraits, for the National Portrait Gallery in 2017, and Cezanne: The Rock & Quarry Paintings, for the Princeton University Art Museum in 2020. He has published some thirty books and over one hundred essays on topics ranging from Chardin to T.S. Eliot and Bob Dylan to Walter de Maria's Lightning Field; and, most recently, a comprehensive monograph on Helen Frankenthaler.
Andrea Karnes is Chief Curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. She has organised several major exhibitions of contemporary art, including Women Painting Women (2022), Laurie Simmons: Big Camera/Little Camera (2018), KAWS: WHERE THE END STARTS (2016), Mexico Inside Out: Themes in Art Since 1990 (2013), Hubbard / Birchler: No Room to Answer (2008), Pretty Baby (2007), Pierre Huyghe: One Million + Kingdoms (2004), and Julie Bozzi: Landscapes (2003). As curator of the Modern's FOCUS series from 2005 to 2015, Karnes curated thirty solo exhibitions of international artists working in a range of media.
Roxane Gay is the New York Times Bestselling author, a professor, editor, and social commentator. Her writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger.
Emanuele Coccia is a philosopher and lecturer at EHESS, Paris. He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Duesseldorf, Columbia and Harvard. He is the author of La Vie sensible, The Life of Plants, Metamorphoses and Philosophie de la maison. He recently participated in the making of animated videos, such as Quercus (2020, with Formafantasma), Heaven in Matter (2021, with Faye Formisano) and The Portal of Mysteries (2022, with Dotdotdot). In 2019 he took part in the Trees exhibition held at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris. He edited the catalogue for the 23rd Triennale di Milano, Unknown Unknowns: An Introduction to Mysteries.
Sally Mann is an American photographer and writer. Her work is held in many notable collections, including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Mann's Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs (Little, Brown, 2015) was named a finalist for the 2015 National Book Awards and in 2016 won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022 and is a Prix Pictect laureate.