Egon Schiele – Jenny Saville

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.