-
Jenny Saville Bares All
Jenny Saville is one brave woman. Her work fearlessly portrays bodies that, to put it gently, are not considered classically beautiful. Others have used the language obese and deformed. But hey, semantics. A mother of two children, Saville has stripped down for her own drawings that depict naked mothers and their children. Other massive scale paintings show overweight or transgender (or overweight and transgender) bodies, existing in the space between the gender binary. Saville has gained global acclaim for the light and curious gaze she has cast on these previously side-swept, discarded bodies. For those eager to see where her aesthetic is heading next, Saville is currently showcasing original drawings on…
-
Facebook: the art censor
Gustave Courbet’s The Origin of the World – his clinically voyeuristic 1866 oil painting of a woman shown literally and solely as a sex object, with all distractions, such as her face, ruthlessly removed – hangs in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, opposite his far larger canvas A Burial at Ornans (1849–50). It is an incredibly powerful juxtaposition, an unforgettable double act. The small, yet white and bright and unavoidably shocking Origin looks across a shadowy space at the huge, dark, funeral scene, with its enigmatic rural faces gathered around the black void of a grave. If you could ask Courbet what he believed in, this display makes it plain…






You must be logged in to post a comment.