Jenny Saville

Published in 1999 by Electa, this monograph serves as a definitive early survey of the work of Jenny Saville, a central figure in the Young British Artists movement. The volume was released during a period of intense public and critical scrutiny of Saville’s large-scale oil paintings, which are noted for their visceral, monumental depictions of the human figure. It provides context for the artist's departure from traditional portraiture through her obsession with flesh, materiality, and the boundaries of the body.

The book captures the aesthetic trajectory Saville established throughout the 1990s, drawing on her study of medical textbooks and photography to inform her unconventional color palette and heavy impasto technique. By gathering these works into a single reference, Electa positioned the publication as both a catalogue of her provocative exhibitions and a scholarly examination of her challenge to contemporary beauty standards. The collection remains a primary reference point for those studying the evolution of figurative painting at the turn of the millennium.