Fascinated by pathological perceptions of the body, Jenny Saville’s paintings depict grotesque, hyperreal visions of the human figure where faces are dismembered and flesh abounds. Using thick layers of oil paint, Saville’s work challenges her genre, combining art historical tropes by merging Peter Paul Rubens’s classic figuration with Chaim Soutine’s visceral portrayals of carcasses, Cubism’s fractured planes, and Abstract Expressionism’s gestural strokes. Inspired by and reflecting a wide range of topics—from obese women in American shopping malls to bodies beyond the gender binary and brassiere imprints—Saville’s paintings have become emblematic of the female gaze. “I want to be a painter of modern life, and modern bodies,” she says. In 2018, Saville’s early nude portrait Propped (1992), which portrays a woman gripping at her flesh in the face of a cloudy mirror, sold for $12.4 million.