In the Realm of the Mothers III 2014

Jenny Saville made this drawing, with charcoal and pastel on paper, and you can almost feel the grit of the charcoal as it moves across the surface. I can imagine her, shifting and layering marks in a frenzy of looking, thinking, and feeling. There’s this big blue-grey rectangle of pastel in the background with dark scribbles overlaid. The bodies are rendered with smudgy grey tones, punctuated by quick bursts of red, like a flash of raw energy. Saville is known for her monumental paintings of the human form, so this drawing feels like a condensed version of her larger explorations. It’s like she’s channeling the spirits of past masters while forging her own path. Painters are always talking to one another across time and space, and this is part of an ongoing conversation, inspiring each other’s creativity. Painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.