An encounter between a seminal Austrian Expressionist and a Young British Artist
The main body of work by painter Egon Schiele (1890–1918), who died at an early age, was produced within barely a decade. His famous nudes unwaveringly probed the existential core of human experience. The paintings of Jenny Saville (* 1970 in Cambridge) are no less intense in terms of their physicality and confrontational stance. This catalogue brings together the works of these two artists for the first time. Revealed is the stylistic and thematic proximity of the body-landscapes and portraits by the two young “stars”—despite the decades separating their work and their varying use of the brush. The paintings and drawings of both artists lend the human body an insistent corporeality, which is rendered in every detail. In Schiele’s self-portraits, usually small-format works, the pose, the accentuated view from below, and gestural style give the images a visual impact equal to the forceful punch of Saville’s giant formats.
