Initial ResponseBleach was the first work of Saville I saw, and at first glance I was immediately stunned silent. I had no context, or any idea what the painting was about, but the visceral discomfort I felt when looking at Saville's work made me want to learn more about it.
When I look at Saville's work I feel an overwhelming amount of pain, it is like the model portrayed within her work is telling me her story, sharing her pain with me. However, there are other words that come to my mind, these are ones such as; pain, honesty, hurt, violence, sadness and oddly enough, hope. Almost all of these words have negative connotations, this is because when I look at the face of the woman portrayed all I see is pain and anguish. But for some reason when I look at her eyes I see a glimmer of hope, I think this could be because in the rest of the painting the brush strokes are big and sloppy, unlike the realism that can be seen within her eyes. The change in technique is probably why I'm drawn to the eyes when I look at the piece. However, what I see around the eyes is what keeps me looking there. The pink and red strokes around the eyes are reminiscent of flesh or someone who has just finished crying. These strokes paint a sort of target for the audience as it immediately draws you toward them. MemoryWhen I look at this painting I immediately think, what happened to her? Because I see her, and all I can see is her pain. This reminds me of a Criminal Minds episode that you would see on television. This is because I see pain and suffering, like the victims of the crime. This connection that I make between the art and the painting makes me think that Saville is trying to show us more than the reality of women, it makes me wonder, was she a victim?
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Distorting space and time, and shifting perspectivesThe way Saville distorts space and time is extremely fascinating because she is distorting something that we have already distorted so much as a society. In Bleach, Saville has purposefully distorted the beauty standards that have been set for women by showing the reality of what women look like. Now, not all women look like the one displayed in the picture but Saville is not trying to say that, she is trying to say that not all women look like the beauty standards that have been set up.
Saville distorted the idea that women had to live up to beauty standards that are set for them by modern media and art by creating Bleach which generates a visceral sensation because of the honesty it shows. How the beauty standards are there but not everyone lives up to them, how women are human and they have bruises and chapped lips and their skins isn't perfect. In her distortion of ideas of our time Saville ultimately reverted to showing what the models of the artworks really look like. Saville distorted beauty standards to show the hidden reality of what it looks like. In her work Saville shows different perspectives quite blatantly when you understand the message she is displaying in a pictorial way. She is defying the traditional perspective that shows women as objects of beauty by showing a more realistic perspective of what women are like. This more realistic perspective is also emphasized by having the woman in the painting displayed really close on the canvas, having a close-up of the face. Jenny Saville shows a shift in perspectives by showing a perspective that completely opposes what is traditionally shown. |
The ArtistJenny Saville is a British female artist born in 1970. She was born in Cambridge, England and studied in Scotland in the Glasgow school of Art. She was part of the 'Young Artists Group' which led to her fame at such a young age in the 1990s. Her work has been exhibited all of the world and she currently lives and works in Sicily (ArtNet).
Associations and InfluencesWhen it comes to her techniques she is often associated with realistic and traditional form of painting. She focuses mainly on portraiture of women on large canvases. Her work has often been compared to Lucian Freud and Sir Peter Paul Rubens (see images below and above). As mentioned in the background her main influence for painting is seeing the women of the United States, and seeing plastic surgeons operating (ArtNet).
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BackgroundThe reason Saville paints portraits of women, and like some of her work focuses on large female bodies. This inspiration originated from her scholarship to the Cincinatti university, this is because when she went to the United States she saw all of the obese women on the streets and was taken aback by their grandness. This inspiration led to her studying plastic surgery and actually seeing operations happen (Planquelle, 2015). This is where the portraits of women come from, from seeing their faces during the surgeries. Below is a quote of Saville discussing why she paints female bodies.
“I wanted both in those pictures. A large female body has a power; it occupies a physical space, yet there’s an anxiety about it." Saville's work connects on amore international level because her work speaks of the present and ongoing issue of female portrayal in media. This ranges from cinematography, to social media. How women have to be perfect and look perfect, but Saville's work, such as Bleach goes against this rule society has set and it shows the reality of women and how they can be and that flesh isn't always flawless and smooth.
Ideas and IntentionsSaville communicates through her work by shocking her audience. Bleach causes those that are looking at it to be silenced, to wonder what is happening and why. Saville communicates her message by showing us the truth, and since the truth is so shocking that in itself makes us wait and think, therefore this is how Saville communicates with us, by shocking us.
What she is trying to communicate through her art is the truth and that what we see is often a lie. How it is often what we want to see rather than what truly is there. Below is a quote about why she paints what she does. "There is a thing about beauty. Beauty is always associated with the male fantasy of what the female body is... It’s just what women think is beautiful can be different. And there can be a beauty in individualism. If there is a wart or a scar, this can be beautiful, in a sense, when you paint it." |
Subject Matter"Bleach" by Jenny Saville consists of a large canvas with a female face covering up the majority of the space. She appears to have bruises or wounds around her eyes and chapped lips. The female does not appear to have any clothes on and this aids to show the reality of women and how it is not always as is portrayed. Since the painting is a portrait there is not a narrative of what is happening, But from the eyes and how they are painted we can see that something has happened. Despite there not being a narrative it is implied that something has happened.
The art does depict a social issue, it depicts women's portrayal in the media. Which, in itself, isn't often discusses as an issue but rather it is discussed with women's rights. This is because the portrayal of women in media is more so towards beautiful objects than human beings. This is an on going social issue. However, in 2008, when it was painted we were a decade behind where we are now. In 2008 there was progress being made towards the movement world wide. The Australian government had committed to working towards paid maternity leave (HumanRights, 2008). In Cairo a professor of Journalism was working towards portraying Arab women as strong and smart rather than weak and docile as often portrayed (Odine, 2013). Therefore, in 2008 Saville painted Bleach along with the many other women on protesting for their rights and fair portrayal in media. So Saville takes a stand for women's rights by saying taht they should be portrayed as they are rather than how others want them to be. I agree with the stand Saville takes on the topic. ColourThe dominant colors of this portrait are cold colors or very faded warm colors. This can be seen, as the background is mainly varyings shades of light blue and grey, these are cold colors. And the face composes of a lot of neutral colors that consist of skins colors and yellows and browns to create the hair. As well there are strokes of read to emphasize the areas around the eyes and skin. Therefore, the color use that Saville utilizes allows the foreground to be faded warm colors, that looks almost cold, and cold colors in the background.
Saville uses color emotionally in this painting as she concentrates the use of bold colors around areas that she knows will cause the audience to react. This can be seen as red is concentrated around the lips and eyes. These are the two areas of the face that look the most wounded. Therefore, Saville uses colors in an emotional way, as her use of it causes the audience to feel powerful emotions. |
CompositionThe composition of the painting is relatively simple, with one object in the foreground and nothing in the background. The one thing in the foreground is the face of the female and the background just appears to be a wall. However, the painting does not appear to be simplistic because the paint strokes are really wide and in disarray making the foreground appear busy despite the lack of narrative.
Saville's work in this is symmetrical, it is not perfect but since the foreground is such a large part of the painting it is hard for it to be asymmetrical. This contributes to the painting because since there it is not asymmetrical the audience is automatically drawn to the foreground. I would say the central object of this piece is her lips. This is because my eyes are first originally drawn to her lips. I believe that the reason behind this is rule of thirds. Because if you break the portrait into three rows her lips are positioned in the third row. This is one of the techniques Saville uses to draw our attention to the lips. I think this is carefully designed as the tilting of the head and arranging of the features allows the lips to be in that position. |
Mood/ Atmosphere/ Environment |
Materials/ Techniques/ Processes |
The words that come into my head when I see this art piece are ones such as; neurotic, anxious, visceral, real, awkward. And the main mood this painting creates is a melancholic mood. This mood is created mostly by the emptiness and sadness that can be seen within her eyes. These are the main contributors to the creation of the mood within the painting.
Another contributing factor to the atmosphere and mood of this piece is Saville's use of color. As mentioned earlier, as her intended mood is melancholic the colors she uses further enforce this. By using muted colors she makes the dark red pop out even more contributing to the wounded sensation. |
Saville paints with a paintbrush and uses acrylic to paint her work. And she uses the paintbrush to create large brisk brushstrokes that become more fine and concentrated around areas such as the eyes and the mouth. However, in the background her brushstrokes are wider and flatter contrasting to those in the foreground that go in all directions and have more color clashes.
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Initial response |
Distorting space and time, and shifting perspectives |
When I first looked at this painting I was overwhelmed. There are so many things going on, so many colors happening all at once. Dali's painting confused me so much that I didn't realize what was actually happening. For example, at first I thought the two figures in the foreground of the painting were two humans, that were probably Narcissus. But when I was reading articles on the painting it turns out that the two figures are Narcissus' hands reaching up and holding an egg with a flower sprouting out of it.
The first words that come to mind when looking at Dali's painting are ones such as; chaos, distraction, complicated, mirror, and confusion. This is because "Metamorphosis of Narcissus" is overwhelming there is so much happening. In the background there appears to be smoke coming out of the mountains which is why I think chaos. But mirror comes to mind because I think the two hands in the foreground are not two separate beings but rather the same hand that is reflected onto the water. Though there if no specific focal point for me when I look at this painting, my eyes do divert often to the white hand holding the egg with a flower sprouting from it. This is probably because of rule of thirds since the hand is kind of in the third vertical third of the painting, if it were to be split into thirds. |
In this are piece Dali is primarily distorting time. This is because in the painting there are multiple Narcissus' (the two hands in the foreground, and in the background on the right hand side you can see another version of Narcissus. All of these are happening at the same time, however, this is impossible in reality, as the hands are in the part of the greek myth where the gods cursed Narcissus into falling in love with himself. But, the statue of Narcissus comes from a time where Narcissus still wasn't cursed and everyone worshipped him because of his beauty. In this way of portraying Narcissus Salvador Dali is distorting time as he is conducting multiple scenarios all on the same canvas.
Dali has distorted the idea that artists are restricted to a single time frame and one scenario at a time. He has done this effectively by synthesizing multiple events and people into a single canvas. Dali has shown different perspectives in his work "Metamorphosis of Narcissus" because he is showing the different parts of the myth of Narcissus and the different ways in which he was portrayed through space and time. Examples of this in his painting are the ways in which Narcissus is portrayed. When he is in the statue Narcissus appears high and mighty, and this is emphasized by his posture and the fact that he is a statue. However, when Narcissus is portrayed by just his hand, the one on the right hand side appears worn down due to the cracks in his fingers and the ants crawling up his wrist. Finally, another way which Narcissus is portrayed as is as forgotten. This can be seen in the hand on the left hand side which appears to be dissolving, and this could be interpreted as the memory of Narcissus dissolving into time. |