The Modern Presents Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth presents Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, a major museum exhibition dedicated to the work of one of the world’s foremost contemporary painters.

Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London, this exhibition brings together nearly 50 works made throughout the artist’s career. The exhibition is broadly chronological in scope and traces the development of Saville’s practice from the 1990s to today. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is proud to be the only U.S. venue for this important exhibition.

“We are honored that the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will be the exclusive U.S. venue for Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, giving our community and visitors to Fort Worth a remarkable opportunity to experience and learn from the breadth of this celebrated artist’s work. We enthusiastically invite everyone to join us for this stunning exhibition and engaging programs that draw connections in dialogue with the Modern’s Collection.”

Halona Norton-Westbrook, Ph.D.
Director of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Highlighting key artworks, from monumental oil paintings to smaller-scale charcoal drawings, the exhibited works reveal the inventiveness of Saville’s practice. Curated by Sarah Howgate, Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections at the National Portrait Gallery, London, with consultation by Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Chief Curator Andrea Karnes, this survey was created in close collaboration with the artist to explore her deep passion for the painting process, including drawing as a cornerstone.

Latent, 2020-2022 by Jenny Saville © Jenny Saville, Courtesy The George Economou Collection

Rising to prominence in the 1990s, Saville has played a leading role in reinvigorating figurative painting. Her works reveal a deep awareness of art history and the ways in which the body has been represented over time and across cultures. While inspired by great artists, like Michelangelo and Rembrandt, and influenced by modern masters like Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, Saville is also intrigued by the work of abstract artists, including Willem de Kooning and Cy Twombly.

Saville’s early figurative representations were captivating in their depictions of heads and bodies. The exhibition reunites some of the paintings the artist created while still at the Glasgow School of Art, including ground-breaking works that launched her into the spotlight. The bold and intense aesthetic of these early paintings prefigures Saville’s later work and her ongoing interest in flesh and anatomy.

In addition to Saville’s painted forms, Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting includes a number of drawings that are intimate and almost sculptural in appearance. Using charcoal, pastel, and pencil, the medium of drawing has remained important to Saville’s practice, providing an important outlet for experimentation.

Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting concludes with the artist’s most recent series of new “portraits,“ which illustrate the evolution in her presentations of flesh. While her distinct style is maintained, these works fall between the figurative and the abstract. Rendered in saturated tones, for Saville, these paintings make connections between the physical and virtual in our contemporary age.

“It has been a profound honor to work closely with Jenny Saville, Sarah Howgate, and the National Portrait Gallery, London. Saville’s paintings are rich with emotion and physicality—raw and poetic in equal measure. They push the boundaries of figurative painting and offer a powerful meditation on the human condition. We are privileged to present this exhibition in Fort Worth, with the addition of eleven major U.S. loans.”

Andrea Karnes
Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Reverse, 2002-2003 by Jenny Saville, Private Collection © Jenny Saville, Courtesy Gagosian

“Jenny Saville is one of the most important artists working today. This exhibition charts an exciting journey, from the early monumental paintings I remember well from her Young British Artists III exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in 1994, to her recent ‘portraits’ for the 21st century. Walking a tightrope between figuration and abstraction, the exhibition celebrates and delights in the nature of paint itself. It has been a privilege to work closely with Jenny Saville on The Anatomy of Painting.”

Sarah Howgate
Exhibition Curator and Senior Curator Contemporary Collections,
National Portrait Gallery

Jenny Saville was born in 1970 in Cambridge, England. She received her B.A. Honors Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art, Scotland before being represented by Gagosian in 1997.

Saville is known for her depictions of the human form, which transcend the boundaries of both classical figuration and modern abstraction. Saville has been credited with originating a new and challenging method of depicting the figure in her work by imbuing her monumental paintings with a sculptural yet elusive dimensionality that verges on the abstract.

Saville’s works are featured in several public collections, including the Tate, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Broad, Los Angeles; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and The Long Museum, Shanghai. In 2007, Saville was elected a Royal Academician, Royal Academy of Arts, London.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication of the same name, which includes texts from Emanuele Coccia, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, John Elderfield, Roxane Gay, and Andrea Karnes, as well as a conversation between Saville and the exhibition’s curator, Sarah Howgate. The catalogue is available at the Modern Shop and online at www.shop.themodern.org.

PROGRAMS

Modern Exhibition Lecture Series
Artist Jenny Saville
October 10, 6 pm