Jenny Saville - Simon Schama
If you thought conceptual art was all diamond skulls and rumpled bedsheets, this hefty tome on the painter Jenny Saville is an absolute must see.
One of the most important artists of the YBA generation and amongst the most striking voices of her generation, Saville's art is mainly comprised of oil paintings portraying monumental female nudes that crowd their larger-than-life canvases. A Saatchi protégé, Saville was part of the legendary, headline-making 'Sensations' exhibition in 1997 but her work shouldn't be dismissed as mere shock material. This book is an excellent place to start for a view behind the headlines.
A gorgeously produced monograph, this volume features glossy colour reproductions of Saville's important works and none of the traditional and often stifling picture-by-picture analysis so often found in art books.
Torso 2 - Jenny Saville, 2004
The emphasis is on the images rather than the text although there are excellent essays from John Gray, Linda Nochlin and David Sylvester and an interview of the artist by Simon Schama. Reproductions of paintings are interspersed with images of inspiration, Saville's work process, and lavish close-ups of areas of brushwork.
Saville has been lauded for her use of paint and figure painting two highly traditional modes of representation to create conceptual art.
Her recurring interest in the palpability of the flesh, explored through themes of bodily reconstruction, is demonstrated through the juxtaposition of source material and finished works. Photographs of plastic surgery, burns victims, and sex-changes underpin the violence of these confrontational images, whilst the vivid emphasis on the painted brushstroke reminds us that much of the importance of these images is in their recreation of painting for a modern age.
One of the most thorough volumes currently available on a vital artist, this book is worth a look for anybody interested in contemporary British art.
Jenny Saville
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