Painting Paula Rego sold for half a million euros
The painting “School for Little Witches”, by the Portuguese artist Paula Rego, sold on Wednesday for 415,000 pounds (500,000 euros) at auction in London, above Christie's estimate. Dating from 2009, the 154 x 121 cm painting shows a group of children and their adult caregivers, “as if they were clients of an absurd day care center”, can be read in the essay about the work, published by the auctioneer.
"School for Little Witches" byPaula Rego
“Despite its fantastical appearance, 'School for Little Witches' represents an act of revenge on a teacher who terrorizedPaula Rego as a child. 'She taught me the tables and made me feel bad about my drawings. She said: 'Look at this girl who says she wants to be a painter and look at the rubbish she draws.' I design ugly people as ugly characters, bullies and witches. I use them in scenarios and take pleasure in their fall,” he said.Paula Rego, in a 2019 interview cited by the essay.
"Love is in the air" by banksy
Previously, the most expensive piece sold at auction in London was Banksy's "Love is in the air", which approached a million pounds. In July 2015, a board ofPaula Rego in which the painter alluded to her husband's death in 1988, was sold at an auction in London for 1.6 million euros, setting a record for the Portuguese artist. Another work by the artist, "Looking Out" (1997), a pastel on paper on an aluminum support, with an estimate of between 707,000 euros and 989,000 euros, was sold at the same auction for a final bid of 1,360,941 euros.Paula Rego (1935) gained recognition as one of the greatest artists of our time, nationally and internationally with her works full of expressive, profound and ambiguous elements.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 imagery, the brutality of Portuguese folk tales, the dysfunctional family relationships, political systems, and social structures. Women and girls are placed in the foreground, and animals often replace humans. Between life and art,Paula Rego demonstrates its concerns and convictions, for example, the production of the series entitled «Aborto» for agreeing with the decriminalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.
"Looking Out" byPaula Rego, 1997