Jenny Saville Study for Branded 1992 © Jenny Saville. All rights reserved. DACS, London 2023

Biography

Born 1970
Nationality English
Birth place Cambridge

Born in Cambridge, Jenny Saville studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1992. Saville's work largely comprises of paintings which distort accepted representations of the body. She gained international recognition in 1992 when businessman and art collector Charles Saatchi acquired several uncompromising, large-scale paintings of female nudes which she produced for her graduation exhibition. These works were included in Young British Artists III at Saatchi's London gallery in 1994. During the 1990s Saville observed a plastic surgeon at work which furthered her interest in depicting flesh, and she has explored the body further by working with transgender models. Saville’s work was included in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, and she has exhibited at Gagosian Gallery, New York (2003), Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Roma (2005), and Modern Art, Oxford (2012). NOW (2018) at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art marked the artist's first exhibition in Scotland, and while Saville's work is held in collections internationally, the National Galleries of Scotland are the first UK collection to acquire one of her works.

Glossary terms

Glossary terms

Neo-Expressionism

An art movement of the 1970s and 80s inspired by German Expressionism. Most popular in Germany and America, the style is characterized by large, figurative works, rapidly painted, often with objects, such as broken plates or straw, incorporated into their surfaces.