Jenny Saville and the Power of Influence

Two weeks ago, I attended the Jenny Saville artist lecture at Boston University, my alma mater. I got there as early as I could, but the line was already 5 people wide and ending about a hundred feet from the entrance. Saville's work has guided me through some of the roughest painting periods of my young career, so to meet her in real life, and hear her talk about her work was an opportunity I could not miss.

I have recently started a new job, and I'm sure we all know the rigor of those first few weeks at a new office. Its never clear how things will go, but you have faith that you're there for a reason. However, by the day of the lecture, I had only been at my job a week. So many feelings were going through my head: beginning a new job and phase of career; returning to my old school and campus where the familiar faces that once filled the sidewalks have been replaced with faces I did not know. To top the evening with seeing such a force-of-nature painter was quite intense & exciting, to say the least.

A good academic lecture with a bigwig at the podium always starts late, with the suspense building as the crowd gathers in intellectual anticipation. I had seen a picture recently of Saville in Vanity Fair, but save for that I would not have seen her in the auditorium. She dressed in normal clothes, with an unassuming stance with her hair in a ponytail. She is short, and yet the power of her gaze and the gravitas of her voice more than make up for any underestimatable frame.

Sometimes when you meet your heroes, you have an inflated view of how "awesome" they are going to be. You fantasize about having a deep conversation with them somehow, and perhaps becoming friends. I had no such illusions before this lecture. I prepared myself for her to be tough, academic, and as soon as the lecture was over...on a plane home. Given her success, I also was prepared for her to be a bit of a snob, a "queen of all painting" as it were, who couldn't have cared less what anyone thought of her and her work.

Luckily, Saville was not only a fascinating lecturer, but she was very matter-of-fact, very grateful to be there, and I think very overwhelmed by the show of affection and support for her and her work. A small group of students had come from as far as Miami to attend the lecture, and another woman I spoke to had driven from New York that day. The power Saville has in her work carries over into the reality of her presence. It is as important to see her in person as her work itself.

Her lecture was clear, and honest. She covered, with a great degree of humility, the wide range of influences that aided her work, and her practice. (Which consists of painting all day in a palazzo in Palermo, Sicily...not bad, huh?) The honesty of her narrative was truly the most inspirational part of the evening. Hearing the background of different pieces and how they were created was a true honor.

She showed very graphic images relating to flesh and the body, images she'd collected over the years as her work evolved. Some were, admittedly, hard to look at; the kind of images that make your body react with a cringe or slight cramp almost. But I was honored to be there, at the precipice of her portfolio, pushed to the edge of understanding and being asked to open my eyes wider then they were before I entered that lecture hall.

I admire her honesty and courage for standing at that precipice each day. Despite the luxury of her studio setting and the security of her career, she chooses to walk with the darkness and try to understand where it comes from. She listens to it and tells its story in voluptuous, fleshy oil paint. She makes the truth both disgusting and gorgeous, a didactic experience of art-viewing few achieve with such natural ability.

I feel like I can relate to the type of painter Jenny Saville is. She works extremely hard, has been painting all her life (since childhood), and cares deeply about how her work evolves. Saville is not arbitrarily referencing horrendous imagery for the shock or awe of it. We are not meant to see these rough images that inform her works. Her paintings are stunning despite their source material, yet we are better viewers for it.

I hope to see Saville again in my lifetime. If you have the chance to see her lecture...go. It is a once in a lifetime experience no painter's lifetime should be without.