5 Artworks: The history of the Portuguese artist Paula Rego
Who is it Paula Rego?
Paula Rego portrays stories of his dysfunctional family relationships, political systems (such as that of António de Oliveira Salazar from Portugal) and social structures, in painting in a brutesque, sober and powerful way. Women and animals gain power in his profoundly expressive and ambiguous works. From abstractionism to conceptualism, his pieces are part of a figurative field of their own: «the beautiful grotesque». In surreal compositions with a cruelty - both subtle and explicit - the Portuguese artist demonstrates her own imagination and the brutality of the events in her life. Portuguese-British visual artist who is particularly known for her storybook-based paintings and prints. the style ofPaula Rego evolved from abstract to representational, and preferred pastels over oils for much of her career.Paula Rego studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and was an exhibitor member of the London Group, along with David Hockney and Frank Auerbach. She was the first artist in residence at the National Gallery in London. Discover five iconic works from the career ofPaula Rego.
1. The Family, 1988
In the painting "The Family" the absent father and husband return to the painting, only to be grabbed by their daughter and wife. As usual in paintings byPaula Rego, the clues in the narrative are ambiguous, raising several questions: Are the mother and daughter helping the man or hurting him? Who is the child in the window? Could it be that the clues are in the Portuguese altarpiece that contains Saint John and, next to it, Saint George slaying the dragon? Or, just below, in the illustration of the fable of the stork and the fox? Is man doomed like the dragon, or will he rise like the fox, then devour the stork? We can consider that this work evokes gender equality, due to the way in whichPaula Rego represents the passive man who contrasts with the female action. On the other hand, icons are represented that indicate the presence of domestic violence. In this painting we can see in the foreground, on the left, a table partially covered by a red cloth, which also contains a vase and a red flower, part of which hangs off the table. In the centered background, we see three figures, two female and one male, who is sitting at the foot of the bed and the two women are taking care of him. In a third plane, we can see a fourth figure that observes the scene, it is a very illuminated figure standing next to the window that is open, in the farther plane we see a cupboard with an oratory.Paula Rego he often represents the male figure as useless, also in this painting, the male figure who should represent the father, is seated, with his legs apart, passive, letting the women take care of him. The figure in front of her, between the legs of the male figure, represents the mother, due to her older and closed appearance, holding her father's pants. The figure behind the father is the eldest daughter, although she has a bow in her hair, it can be seen that she is not as old as the girl next to the window. The daughter is on her knees on top of the bed allowing her to hold her hand and help her father with his sleeve, the girl by the window directs her gaze towards the observer, avoiding looking at the action. The oratory at the back of the room takes us into the world of domestic violence. In this oratory we see a female image that raises her gaze to the sky in prayer and at her feet we see a young male figure fighting against an animalistic form. This last figure, by holding a branch of a tree up, indicating that it will hit the figure that is underneath, is a message of violence and provokes the observer who feels provoked but also passive.
2. The Dance, 1988
In intense blues and grays, this is a painting with a ghostly light that suggests a dream episode or a surrealist fantasy. The dancers are short and full-bodied, with movements and costumes reminiscent of Portuguese folkloric traditions from the 1950s. In the background, a sinister construction, similar to a fortress, on a rocky outcrop that ends up adding to the disturbing atmosphere of the painting. the works ofPaula Rego they are based on folklore or fairy tales and on ambiguous and uncomfortable images, linked to his childhood memories. With epic dimensions, this painting with autobiographical references, represents the female life cycle, from childhood to sexual maturity, motherhood to old age. The composition is similar to the work "The Dance of Life", by the Norwegian surrealist painter Edvard Munch, which also represents a group of people dancing in the moonlight, by the sea, with a figure that symbolizes innocence on the left.
“A Dança” is one of the works in whichPaula Rego says goodbye to her husband, Victor Willing. This is represented in the painting as the first man who appears, on the left, dancing with another woman. The scene takes place in Ericeira and also evokes the times the family lived there. Vic Willing's illness, with a predictable outcome, is at the base of several works byPaula Rego, from the series “Woman Dog” to “A Família” (1988), including “Departure” (1988) and “A Dança” (1988), touching farewells.
3. Snow White and her Stepmother, 1995
any work byPaula Rego it has an electrical charge that stays alive and ready to shock. The Portuguese artist is passionate about the darkness of fairy tales, having reinvented them as personal nightmares with fearful tones in new versions that are even scarier than the original narratives. He produced a series of drawings and prints based on Disney images, from Snow White, Pinocchio and Peter Pan, as well as images of Jane Eyre. In thisPaula Rego it changes the hierarchy of the stories, recontextualizes them in contemporary life, and fills them with a kind of sexual dread. Snow White and her Stepmother, is a great pastel from 1995, with a disturbing and emotionally charged image. In this one, we recognize Snow White, by her iconic dress, being helped into her white underwear by an older woman in a tight dress and black stiletto heels. There is something sinister about this act between the two women: Snow White, the unhappy child, being forced to put on (or perhaps take off) her underwear. Undoubtedly, what power of this work lies in the strangeness of the content combined with the powerful form of the figures.
4. Abortion Series
“Women will always abort, and with these laws, they will do so by finding other solutions that put their lives at risk” — Paula Rego
Paula Rego, who created a painting series dedicated to abortion in 2000, after the first referendum on the decriminalization of voluntary termination of pregnancy in Portugal. Abortion was banned, and a first referendum was held to decriminalize it in 1998, which ended up not being binding due to participation below 50% of voters. Use the sharing tools found on the article page. It was following this result of the first referendum that he created the series of ten pastel paintings that, bluntly, portray women experiencing situations of abortion. These circulated in various cities across the country, with the aim of contributing to the cause of decriminalizing the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, something that would only happen in 2007, after a new plebiscite. The black and white engraving, created in 2000 but only now printed for sale, shows a woman preparing to have a clandestine abortion, sitting in a corner, with a bucket at her side.“I was so furious because I remembered my experiences of clandestine abortion when I was a student at the Slade School of Art in London in the 1950s, where it was also illegal,” she wrote.Paula Rego to the Public.
5. Doctor Dog
The “story painter” draws on folk and fairy tales, literature and her own biography to create politically charged and deeply disturbing paintings. His vigorous compositions are imbued with cruelty - subtle and overt - and permeated with a sense of unease and ambiguity. In the foreground women and girls, and often animals as substitutes for humans.Paula Rego is fascinated by what she calls “the beautiful grotesque” in life and art. As she describes it: “It's the divine, maybe. […] I am referring to some other type of divine, which is very strongly linked to Portuguese folk tales and stories – their strength and, often, the enormous cruelty involved. Cruelty is fascinating.”
