Jenny Saville: Elpis

This book was published on the occasion of Jenny Saville: Elpis, an exhibition of new portraits by the artist at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York. The monumental paintings explore the human body and its fascinating aesthetic potential. Saville’s bold and sensuous impressions of surface, line, and mass oscillate between rational and irrational forms, capturing a unique approach to realism specific to the twenty-first century. The publication documents the twelve paintings in the exhibition alongside photographs of the artist’s studio and reference materials, including snapshots taken by Saville. It also features a poem by Anna Akhmatova, whose work Saville learned about while she was in Russia, where she photographed many of the models pictured in the paintings.