Wall of Paula Rego on display at the National Gallery for the first time
The 10 meter wide mural "The Garden of Crivelli", created between 1990 and 1991, will also be joined for the first time with the altarpiece "La Madonna della Rondine", created in the 15th century by Carlo Crivelli, who inspired the Portuguese painter .
In the exhibition, open from Thursday until October 29, there will also be four initial sketches and eight charcoal drawings of people who served as models, namely friends, family members and museum employees.
The mural was commissioned for a wall in the restaurant in the modern wing of the museum, inaugurated in 1991, during an artistic residency by Paula Rego at the National Gallery to produce new artwork inspired by the collection.
The exhibition's programmer, Priyesh Mistry, told today, during a presentation, how Paula Rego initially declined the invitation to be the museum's first resident artist, claiming that the collection was too masculine. However, days later she reconsidered, and Mistry stated that "O Jardim de Crivelli" is a reflection of how the Portuguese woman decided to "subvert and recreate some of the historic works from the perspective of a European woman and painter".
In the mural in acrylic paint on canvas, Rego imagined the house and garden of Carlo Crivelli, an Italian painter specializing in paintings for altars representing the lives of saints, but giving prominence to female characters from the Bible, Roman and Greek mythologies and medieval legends.
On the mural are represented, among others, Virgin Mary, Santa Catarina, Maria Madalena and Delilah, whose portraits were inspired by people who lived with the artist at the time.
One of these models was the art historian Ailsa Turner, who worked in the institution's education department, and who sees herself in several of the figures. "She was very focused and efficient at work and sometimes when we moved she asked us to maintain that gesture. For example, the hand of the Virgin Mary is mine", he told the Lusa agency today. Another scene of a woman and child was inspired by a photograph of the woman herself. Paula Rego with daughter Cassie.
The programmer, Priyesh Mistry, revealed that Paula Rego I found out about this exhibition before I died on June 8, 2022, aged 87.
The exhibition, he stressed today, is a way of "celebrating this remarkable and monumental painting and giving it a bit of prominence", emphasizing the reference to the artist's Portuguese origins."She based this idea of the garden and the setting on the aesthetics of her country, the emblematic Portuguese blue and white tiles", he said.
Colin Wiggins, who accompanied the artist through the creation process while a museum employee, welcomed the fact that the mural had been "released from the National Gallery restaurant" and urged the museum to keep the work on permanent display.
Source: Portuguese