Red Stare Head IV

This painting, done by Jenny Saville, is apart of her latest exhibition, Continuum. at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. The exhibition includes a series of "Stare" paintings which focus on close up views of faces staring into space. They are scaled up to a massive size in which each feature is described in layer upon layer of oil paint. The oil paints are applied in thick impasto layers, built up onto the canvases appearing at times to be semi-abstract, but revealing from a distance carefully constructed features. I chose this portrait because of the beauty of Saville's strokes with the paint. The painting itself is bold, with thick strokes and although the blankness of the girl's stare, you can still see some meaning to the emptiness.