Jenny Saville RA (born 1970) is a contemporary British painter associated with the Young British Artists, recognised for her monumental, expressive depictions of the human form and her raw, powerful approach to flesh and embodiment.
Anything Jenny does is genius. She has combined all the subjects—figures, figurative drawing, abstract, process, drama, storytelling—every possible thing art or painting does, Jenny does in her immensely powerful paintings.
Why do I love her? Because you could sit with a Jenny Saville for the rest of your life and still be surprised by what she has done with the paint. She's constantly pushing boundaries, challenging our perceptions of what painting is today and its relevance in our image-saturated world.
Her handling of paint is extraordinary—the way she builds up flesh, the way she distorts and reconstructs the figure, the way she moves between representation and abstraction within a single work. She is the master of all artists, and her work reminds me why painting matters, why it can still do things that no other medium can do.
MY FAVOURITE PIECE
Focus (2022–2024)
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 120 × 100 cm (47.25 × 39.5 in)
