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The Jenny Saville show at the National Portrait Gallery is as good as the reviews say. There’s a room of miraculous drawings that pull the lived, wriggly physicality of motherhood out of cool renaissance nativities. The newer work is intense, fragmentary, saturated - almost too much. Perhaps it’s interesting to think about her process as a counterpoint to the comfort of routine: “I try not to have a system. Establishing a figurative structure first is a good armature to build on. But it’s not the only way to do it and I’ve tried to seek out ways that might bring greater realism. Once I start realizing I've got a system I try to work against that. I don't want to have a way I do this, because every time I do that, not only do you get bored, but you become mannered, and I fight against being too mannered. I'm figurative, which is, you could argue, an easy way to become mannerist, but I always want to test out what I am doing.” In Conversation: Jenny Saville with Jason Rosenfeld (2021) The Brooklyn Rail
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting (Tickets are spendy - check for concessions and the pay-what-you-can days. Also they don’t give you nearly enough milk with your tea in the café. Cozzy livs, eh?)
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