In her painterly and graphic oeuvre, the renowned British artist Jenny Saville explores the centuries-old tradition of representing the human body. Her figures occupy an ambiguous zone between idealization and deconstruction. Drawing inspiration from the annals of art history – from Old Masters such as Leonardo and Raphael through to Egon Schiele, Picasso, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, Saville’s painterly practice is characterized by physicality, carnality and the interplay between new and old media. Whether she is depicting history, the bodies of others or indeed her own, her work is always be defined by its defiance of the conventional notions of beauty and ugliness.

As a member of the Young British Artists (YBAs), Jenny Saville (*1970, Cambridge) reinvigorated contemporary figurative painting. Oscillating between figuration and abstraction, her work questions representations and perceptions of the human form.