Paula Rego
Girl With Goat's Feet I, 2012
Etching and aquatint
22 x 28 cm
11/50
Lisbon, Portugal, 1935 - London, UK, 2022. An artist of uncompromising vision and a peerless storyteller, Paula Rego brought immense psychological insight and imaginative power to the genre of figurative...
Lisbon, Portugal, 1935 - London, UK, 2022.
An artist of uncompromising vision and a peerless storyteller, Paula Rego brought immense psychological insight and imaginative power to the genre of figurative art. Drawing upon details of her own extraordinary life, on politics and art history, on literature, folk legends, myths and fairytales, Rego’s work at its heart is an exploration of human relationships, her piercing eye trained on the established order and the codes, structures and dynamics of power that embolden or epress the characters she depicts. Often turning hierarchies on their heads, her tableaux, whether tender or tragic, consider the complexities of human experience and the experience of women in particular. She is especially celebrated for works that forcibly address aspects of female agency and resolve, suffering and survival, such as the Dog Women series, begun in 1994, the Abortion series, 1998–99, which is considered to have influenced Portugal’s successful second referendum on the legalisation of abortion in 2007, and the more recent series Female Genital Mutilation, 2008–09.
Rego’s art transcends the art world. She is heralded as a feminist icon and is a household name. In her native Portugal the government commissioned the celebrated architect Eduardo Souto de Moura to design and build a museum dedicated exclusively to her work – Paula Rego’s House of Stories, situated in Cascais, which opened to the public in 2009. Her art continues to have an enduring influence upon younger generations. In 2010 she was made a Dame of The British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
The largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Rego’s work to date was held at Tate Britain in 2021 (7 July–24 October 2021) and travelled to Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands (27 November 2021–20 March 2022), and Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain (26 April–21 August 2022).
Works by the artist featured in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani (23 April - 27 November 2022). Other current and recent major solo exhibitions include Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden, The National Gallery, London, UK (20 July - 29 October 2023); Paula Rego: The Story of Stories, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (23 December 2022 - 30 April 2023 ); Paula Rego: Subversive Stories, featuring prints from across her career, at Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (5 February–29 May 2022); Paula Rego: Literary Inspirations at Petersfield Museum, Hampshire, UK (23 March–9 July 2022); Power Games, Museum De Reede, Antwerp, Belgium (30 July–25 October 2021), and Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance, curated by Catherine Lampert, which travelled from MK Gallery, Milton Keynes to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh in 2019–2020 and was on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin from September 2020–May 2021.
An artist of uncompromising vision and a peerless storyteller, Paula Rego brought immense psychological insight and imaginative power to the genre of figurative art. Drawing upon details of her own extraordinary life, on politics and art history, on literature, folk legends, myths and fairytales, Rego’s work at its heart is an exploration of human relationships, her piercing eye trained on the established order and the codes, structures and dynamics of power that embolden or epress the characters she depicts. Often turning hierarchies on their heads, her tableaux, whether tender or tragic, consider the complexities of human experience and the experience of women in particular. She is especially celebrated for works that forcibly address aspects of female agency and resolve, suffering and survival, such as the Dog Women series, begun in 1994, the Abortion series, 1998–99, which is considered to have influenced Portugal’s successful second referendum on the legalisation of abortion in 2007, and the more recent series Female Genital Mutilation, 2008–09.
Rego’s art transcends the art world. She is heralded as a feminist icon and is a household name. In her native Portugal the government commissioned the celebrated architect Eduardo Souto de Moura to design and build a museum dedicated exclusively to her work – Paula Rego’s House of Stories, situated in Cascais, which opened to the public in 2009. Her art continues to have an enduring influence upon younger generations. In 2010 she was made a Dame of The British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
The largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Rego’s work to date was held at Tate Britain in 2021 (7 July–24 October 2021) and travelled to Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands (27 November 2021–20 March 2022), and Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain (26 April–21 August 2022).
Works by the artist featured in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani (23 April - 27 November 2022). Other current and recent major solo exhibitions include Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden, The National Gallery, London, UK (20 July - 29 October 2023); Paula Rego: The Story of Stories, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (23 December 2022 - 30 April 2023 ); Paula Rego: Subversive Stories, featuring prints from across her career, at Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (5 February–29 May 2022); Paula Rego: Literary Inspirations at Petersfield Museum, Hampshire, UK (23 March–9 July 2022); Power Games, Museum De Reede, Antwerp, Belgium (30 July–25 October 2021), and Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance, curated by Catherine Lampert, which travelled from MK Gallery, Milton Keynes to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh in 2019–2020 and was on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin from September 2020–May 2021.
Courtesy of LAMB Arts
Copyright The Artist