Boots decides artist's nude snapshots are over-exposed

SHE IS praised as the most gifted young painter in Britain. Her nudes, based on photographs of herself, form the centrepiece of the Young British Artists exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Next month, she begins work in America, writes John Arlidge.

But Jenny Saville, 23, has fallen foul of the sensitivity of the British retailer. Boots have refused to develop her prints.

Ms Saville used Boots in Victoria Road, Glasgow, near her home, to develop the photographs in which she deliberately distorts her body to provide models for her bulging nudes. She says women like her paintings because they portray the female body 'as it really is for most of us'.

But on her last visit a sales manager told her the photographs were 'disgusting'. Ms Saville said: 'The woman told me, 'We don't develop that sort of material here.' Suddenly, there were about 20 grannies all around me, staring.

'I tried to explain that I was an artist, but they obviously did not get it.'

Boots declined to comment.