#toxic beauty standards

Art History #11 — Female Identity // 22.12.20

Proppedis a superlative self-portrait by Jenny Saville, first displayed at her degree show in Edinburgh in May, 1992. The painting displays an exposed woman adjusted on a high stool in front of a mirror, with the words “If we continue to speak in this sameness — speak as men have spoken for centuries, we will fail each other” facing towards her. The combination of vulnerability, independence and message within this portrait demonstrates Saville’s intention to diminish several propositions: society’s toxic beauty standards, sexist ideals, and the relentless male convention of female nudity (with a specific focus on cultural aversion to corpulence).

In the artist’s words, “I’m interested in the power a large female body has – a body that occupies a lot of physical space, but also someone who’s acutely aware that our contemporary culture encourages her to disguise her bulk and look as small as possible”, her paintings present the viewer with a dichotomy; there is an intense sense of vulnerability that permeates Saville’s subjects, and yet their large size belies this impression of fragility. The portrait is ultimately painted in such a way to counteract these stubborn stereotypes and ideals — Saville is successfully able to promote inclusitivioty and interrogate prescribed notions of beauty. Additionally, for a young woman, at the time, to insert herself into the male canon of nude paintings was highly audacious. It was extremely rare for women to paint the female nude with such candour, and they instead simply painted their subjects clothes. Saville’s intentions of carving out a space for herself in a very male dominated field is clear, especially since the primary subject in early works is herself — there is significance to this choice. Her work, therefore, would not only have been influential through its inherent message of body acceptance, but also due to her bold denial of sexist rules. She reinvented society’s expectations in several ways, and in doing so suggested a more feminist, fair viewpoint.

Sources:
- Art History lesson notes.
- https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-groundbreaking-self-portrait-that-launched-jenny-savilles-career