Skin Deep opens on Saturday (March 10) at the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle (for which there is an admission charge), and runs until June 17. As he suggested, cosmetic surgery techniques are constantly being refined, just as the list of possible – and desirable – procedures grows longer. It’s likely that his paintings will be studied in years to come. Jonathan said: “I feel this is something I’ll keep coming back to because I think it’s really interesting.” There you will also find an essay putting Jonathan’s surgery pictures in a tradition going back to Leonardo da Vinci via the First World War artist Henry Tonks, who documented pioneering plastic surgery techniques, Barbara Hepworth and Rembrandt. He returned to it in 2011 after striking up a friendship with Miles Berry and a conversation between the two of them is published in the new book which goes with the exhibition. His first mentor in this field was cosmetic surgeon Martin Kelly who was married to the film star Natascha McElhone and died tragically young in 2008. Jonathan picked up his surgery series after a few years. “And the age of people requesting it has come down to the early twenties.” “It has become more accepted,” said Jonathan. The last painting in the exhibition, showing part of the gender reassignment procedure, a double incision mastectomy, reflects the fact that this, too, is now an increasingly common part of the cosmetic surgeon’s work. That seems sad and underlines the dangers of rushing into procedures that are the result of a misunderstanding. Rhytidectomy V, 2012 by Jonathan Yeo (Image: Jonathan Yeo Studio) Look at the paintings in any big gallery and you will see that ideals of beauty have changed over the years. She might not have been quite so chuffed if she had heard one of Jonathan’s surgeon acquaintances murmur nonchalantly in passing: “Oh, yes, 2005.” While the ‘before’ picture showed no obvious flaw, the ‘after’ picture, with its tan lines and more upright posture, suggested the client had been mightily pleased with her, shall we say, enhanced profile. Studying one set, he gave voice to my feelings: “You might think, why did they do that?”īut then he pointed out some interesting things. In the exhibition are some ‘before and after’ paintings of breast augmentation surgery. We have got rather obsessed with not standing out.” “This idea of homogeneity is a strange one. It’s all about how you feel.”Īs an artist, said Jonathan, he couldn’t feel happy when someone decided to alter their (to his mind) most interesting feature. “Some people might have some problem and decide it’s all because of their nose. Reduction Rhinoplasty, 2011 by Jonathan Yeo (Image: Jonathan Yeo Studio) He saw parallels between the painter’s and the surgeon’s art and there are plenty of ironies here to enjoy. Also the way his hands moved and the initial puffiness of the patient’s features after treatment. Jonathan, reasoning that cosmetic surgery was like sculpting with bodies, watched and took in everything, the way the surgeon, using a black pen, marked “with a casual savagery” where the knife would go. It led to an invitation to witness a procedure taking place and Jonathan responded with puppyish enthusiasm. Then he got talking to a cosmetic surgeon who was also an amateur artist. They were people I’d observed closely but now felt something wasn’t quite the same.” Jonathan said he’d started to notice when people he knew had had a facelift. He perfected the art of depicting flesh tones and that is clearly evident in this body of work. He studied the paintings hanging in Tate Britain, notably those of portrait painters such as Lucian Freud. Lower Lid Blepharoplasty II, 2012 by Jonathan Yeo (Image: Jonathan Yeo Studio)
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