Jenny Saville's Venice Retrospective at Ca' Pesaro Includes New Tribute to Titian

A major monographic exhibition of British painter Jenny Saville (born 1970, Cambridge) is on view at Ca' Pesaro – Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna in Venice until November 22, 2026. Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni, the show traces Saville's career from early works like 'Propped' (1992), her diploma piece at Glasgow School of Art, and 'Hybrid' (1997) to recent paintings. The exhibition highlights Saville's engagement with Italian Renaissance painting, particularly a new series explicitly inspired by Titian, reinterpreting subjects such as Danaë and Aphrodite through a contemporary feminist lens. Saville, a key figure among the Young British Artists, gained prominence in the 1997 'Sensation' exhibition at London's Royal Academy of Arts, where her choice of traditional figurative painting was seen as revolutionary. The show includes monumental female nudes addressing body image, cosmetic surgery, and mortality, as well as works like 'Byzantium' (2018) and 'Aleppo' that engage with political themes of war and suffering. A selection of drawings reveals her creative process.