Paula Rego

{{Infobox artist

| name = Paula Rego

| honorific_prefix = Dame

| honorific_suffix = DBE RA GCSE GOSE GColCa

| image = File:PaulaRego.jpg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name = Maria Paula Figueiroa Rego

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1935|1|26}}

| birth_place = Lisbon, Portugal

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2022|6|8|1935|1|26}}

| death_place = London, England

| nationality = Portuguese/British

| field = Painting, printmaking

| spouse = {{marriage|Victor Willing|1959|1988|end=his death}}

| children = 3; including Victoria and Nick

| awards = Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Grand Cross of the Order of Saint James of the Sword
Grand Officer of the Order of Saint James of the Sword
Grand Collar of the Order of Camões

}}

Dame Maria Paula Figueiroa Rego {{post-nominals|country=GBR|list=DBE RA GCSE GOSE GColCa|size=100%}} ({{IPA|pt|ˈpawlɐ ˈʁeɣu|lang}}: 26 January 1935 – 8 June 2022) was a Portuguese visual artist, widely considered the pre-eminent woman artist of the late 20th and early 21st century, known particularly for her paintings and prints based on storybooks.{{cite web | url=https://www.ft.com/content/a919f12e-79d6-4de7-84a1-a2f164d614bc | title=Paula Rego, painter, 1935–2022 }} Rego's style evolved from abstract towards representational, and she favoured pastels over oils for much of her career.{{cite book | last=Rees-Jones | first=Deryn | title=Paula Rego: The Art of Story | publisher=Thames and Hudson| publication-place=London | date= 2019| isbn=978-0-500-02137-8 | page=155}} Her work often reflects feminism, coloured by folk-themes from her native Portugal.

Rego studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and was an exhibiting member of The London Group, along with David Hockney and Frank Auerbach. In 1989 she became the second artist-in-residence, after the scheme re-started, at the National Gallery in London, after Jock McFadyen, who was the first in 1981.{{cite web | url=https://jockmcfadyen.com/about.html | title=About | Jock McFadyen | access-date=9 June 2022 | archive-date=8 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808035638/https://jockmcfadyen.com/about.html | url-status=live }} She lived and worked in London.

Early life

Rego was born on 26 January 1935 in Lisbon, Portugal.[http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/biography.aspx "Paula Rego Biography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812165240/http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/biography.aspx |date=12 August 2021 }}, Casa da Historias, Retrieved 8 June 2022. Her father was an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company and was ardently anti-fascist.{{cite news |last= Mackenzie |first= Suzie |date= 30 November 2002 |title= Don't flinch, don't hide |url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/nov/30/art.artsfeatures |work= The Guardian |access-date= 13 June 2019}} Her mother was a competent artist but, as a conventional Portuguese woman from the early 20th century, gave her daughter no encouragement towards a career, even though she began drawing at age 4.Willing, Nick, Paula Rego, Secrets & Stories, Kismet Films for the BBC, 25 March 2017. The family was divided in 1936 when her father was posted to work in the United Kingdom. Rego's parents left her behind in Portugal in the care of her grandmother until 1939. Rego's grandmother was to become a significant figure in her life, as she learned from her grandmother and the family maid many of the traditional folktales that would one day make their way into her art work.Brown, Mick. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/6469383/Paula-Rego-interview.html "Paula Rego interview"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180411082425/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/6469383/Paula-Rego-interview.html |date=11 April 2018 }}, The Telegraph, Retrieved 12 May 2014.

Rego's family were keen Anglophiles, and Rego was sent to the only English-language school in the Lisbon area at the time, Saint Julian's School in Carcavelos, which she attended from 1945 to 1951. St Julian's School was Anglican and this, combined with the hostility of Rego's father to the Roman Catholic Church, served to create a distance between Rego and full-blooded Roman Catholic belief, although she was nominally a Roman Catholic and lived in a devoutly Roman Catholic country. Rego described herself as having become a "sort of Catholic", but as a child she possessed a sense of Catholic guilt and a very strong belief that the Devil was real.John McEwen, Paula Rego (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1992) pp. 25ff

Education

In 1951, Rego was sent to the United Kingdom to attend a finishing school called The Grove School, in Sevenoaks, Kent. Unhappy there, Rego attempted in 1952 to start studies in art at the Chelsea School of Art in London, but was advised against this choice by her legal guardian in Britain, David Phillips, who had heard that a young woman had become pregnant while a student there. He suggested to her parents that the Slade School of Fine Art was a more respectable choice and helped her achieve a place there. From 1952 to 1956, she attended the Slade School.

Career

File:Paula Rego's Studio 2007.jpg

Although Rego was commissioned by her father to produce a series of large-scale murals to decorate the works' canteen at his electrical factory in 1954, while she was still a student, Rego's artistic career effectively began in early 1962, when she began exhibiting with The London Group,Kellaway, Kate. [http://www.thelondongroup.com/artist_Rego.php "Artists: Paula Rego"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123225055/http://www.thelondongroup.com/artist_Rego.php |date=23 January 2018 }}, The London Group, Retrieve 23 May 2014. a long-established artists' organization, which had David Hockney and Frank Auerbach among its members. In 1965, she was selected to take part in a group show, Six Artists, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.[http://www.ica.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/ICA%20Exhibitions%20List%201948%20-%20Present.pdf "ICA Exhibitions"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140523031309/http://www.ica.org.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/ICA%20Exhibitions%20List%201948%20-%20Present.pdf |date=23 May 2014 }}, Institute of Contemporary Art, Retrieved 23 May 2014. That same year she had her first solo show at the Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes (SNBA) in Lisbon. She was also the Portuguese representative at the 1969 São Paulo Art Biennial.[http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/group-exhibitions.aspx "Group Exhibitions"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129235913/https://casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/group-exhibitions.aspx |date=29 November 2022 }}, Casa das Historias Paula Rego, Retrieved 22 May 2014. Between 1971 and 1978 she had seven solo shows in Portugal, in Lisbon and Porto, and then a series of solo exhibitions in Britain, including at the AIR Gallery in London in 1981, the Arnolfiniin Bristol in 1983, and the Edward Totah Gallery in London in 1984, 1985 and 1987.Tate Gallery Archives, London, ref. TGA978.

In 1988, Rego was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the Serpentine Gallery in London.[http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/galleries/chelsea/artists/paula-rego/biography "Biography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140523044743/http://www.marlboroughgallery.com/galleries/chelsea/artists/paula-rego/biography |date=23 May 2014 }}, Marlborough Gallery, Retrieved 23 May 2014. This led to her being invited to become the first Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London, in 1990, in what was the first of a series of artist-in-residence schemes organized by the gallery.{{cite book|author=Ian Chilvers|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Art|isbn=0-19-860476-9}}Patterson, Christina. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/paula-regos-private-world-8465878.html "Paula Rego's private world"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711094216/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/paula-regos-private-world-8465878.html |date=11 July 2017 }}, The Independent, Retrieved 12 May 2014. From this emerged two sets of work. The first was a series of paintings and prints on the theme of nursery rhymes, which was taken around Britain and elsewhere by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the British Council from 1991 to 1996. The second was a series of large-scale paintings inspired by the paintings of Carlo Crivelli in the National Gallery, known as Crivelli's Garden which have been housed in the main restaurant at the gallery{{cite web |last1=Jaggi |first1=Maya |author-link=Maya Jaggi |title=Secret Histories |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/jul/17/art.art |website=The Guardian |date=17 July 2004 |access-date=8 June 2022}} prior to its temporary shutting to allow for the renovation works planned to renew the Sainsbury Wing in celebration of the National Gallery's bicentenary in 2024.{{cite web |title=NG200: Building towards our Bicentenary |url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/ng200 |website=The National Gallery |access-date=10 May 2023 |archive-date=28 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428141356/https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about-us/ng200 |url-status=live }}

In 1995, Rego used pastels to revise the story of Snow White in her drawing Swallows the Poisoned Apple.{{Cite web |last=Sibley |first=Gail |title=Paula Rego, "Swallows the Poisoned Apple," 1995, pastel on paper mounted on aluminium, 70 x 59 in, Saatchi Gallery |date=27 November 2013 |url=http://www.gailsibley.com/2013/11/27/is-it-a-painting-or-a-drawing-the-debate-over-the-status-of-pastels/20091202023843_paularegoswallows/ |access-date=4 June 2020 |language=en-US |archive-date=4 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200604235206/http://www.gailsibley.com/2013/11/27/is-it-a-painting-or-a-drawing-the-debate-over-the-status-of-pastels/20091202023843_paularegoswallows/ |url-status=live }} In her work, Snow White is pictured after she has eaten the poisoned apple and appears older and in some type of physical pain. She "lays clutching her skirts, as if trying to cling to life and her femininity which are slipping away".{{Cite web |last=Michalska |first=Magda |date=10 February 2018 |title=Story Within A Story In Paula Rego's World |url=https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/paula-regos-world/ |access-date=4 June 2020 |website=DailyArtMagazine.com – Art History Stories |language=en-US |archive-date=5 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605010630/https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/paula-regos-world/ |url-status=live }} This was done to show what a female goes through during the processes of life{{Cite web |last=Charatan |first=Fred |date=28 April 2005 |title=Life |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1777628127 |website=Pro Quest |id={{ProQuest|1777628127}}}} and ageing over the years, as well as showing the "physical and psychological violation" age plays in a female's life.{{Cite web |title=Paula Rego – Swallows the Poisoned Apple – Contemporary Art |url=https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/rego_paula_swallows_poisoned_apple.htm |access-date=4 June 2020 |website=Saatchi Gallery |archive-date=8 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190908181008/https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/rego_paula_swallows_poisoned_apple.htm |url-status=dead }} At the time the artwork was made, Rego was about 60 years old and her age did play a significant part in this artwork.

Other exhibitions included a retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 1997, Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1998, Tate Britain in 2005, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2007. A major retrospective of her work was held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 2007, which travelled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the following year.{{cite web | first=Blake | last=Gopnik | author-link=Blake Gopnik | title=Paula Rego: National Museum of Women in the Arts | url=https://www.artforum.com/picks/paula-rego-20130 | website=ARTFORUM | date=5 May 2008 | access-date=9 June 2022 | archive-date=9 June 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220609072553/https://www.artforum.com/picks/paula-rego-20130 | url-status=live }}

In 2008, Rego exhibited at the Marlborough Chelsea in New York, and staged a retrospective of her graphic works at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes, France. As well as her showing at Marlborough Fine Art in London in 2010, the art historian Marco Livingstone organised a retrospective of her work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico, which was later shown at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo in Brazil. In 2011, Rego appeared in the documentary Looking for Lowry with Ian McKellen as an interviewee, commenting on her experience with Lowry at the Slade School of Fine Art.{{cite web |title=Looking for Lowry |url=https://www.foxtrotfilms.com/films/looking_for_lowry/ |website=Foxtrot Films |date=22 November 2011 |access-date=9 June 2022}}

Rego was commissioned by the Royal Mail in 2004 to produce a set of Jane Eyre stamps.{{cite web |title=New stamp on what happened to Jane Eyre| last1 = Thorpe | first1 = Vanessa|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/feb/20/books.post |website=Guardian |date=20 February 2005}}

In March 2017, Rego was the subject of the BBC documentary Paula Rego, Secrets & Stories, directed by her son Nick Willing.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08kz9qz|website=BBC Two|title=Paula Rego: Secrets and Stories|date=25 March 2017|access-date=10 August 2021|archive-date=9 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809114012/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08kz9qz|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/artist-paula-regos-son-nick-willing-wasnt-allowed-mothers-studio/|title = Artist Paula Rego's son, Nick Willing: 'I wasn't allowed in my mother's studio, so I grew up thinking that art was magical and mysterious'|newspaper = The Telegraph|date = 8 June 2019|last = Willing|first = Nick|archive-date = 10 August 2021|access-date = 10 August 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210810164557/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/artist-paula-regos-son-nick-willing-wasnt-allowed-mothers-studio/|url-status = live}}

Rego's work was included in the 2022 exhibition Women Painting Women at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.{{cite web |title=Women Painting Women |url=https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/women-painting-women |website=Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth |access-date=15 May 2022 |language=en |archive-date=17 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221117093209/https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/women-painting-women |url-status=live }} In 2023 some of her art was exhibited at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.{{Cite web |title=Pera Museum {{!}} Current Exhibitions |url=https://www.peramuseum.org/exhibition |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=www.peramuseum.org |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111195214/https://www.peramuseum.org/exhibition |url-status=live }}

At the time of her death, Rego was represented by the Victoria Miro Gallery{{cite web | url=https://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/238-paula-rego/ | title=Paula Rego | access-date=11 June 2022 | archive-date=8 June 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220608233845/https://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/238-paula-rego/ | url-status=live }} and the Cristea Roberts Gallery.{{cite web | url=https://cristearoberts.com/artists/206-paula-rego/ | title=Paula Rego Art | Portuguese Printmaker | Paula Rego Prints | access-date=3 November 2020 | archive-date=20 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020143322/https://cristearoberts.com/artists/206-paula-rego/ | url-status=live }} Her work can be seen in many public and private institutions around the world. There are 43 of her works in the collection of the British Council,{{cite web |title=Collection search: Paula Rego |url=http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/search-9/search/artist:paula-rego |website=British Council Collection |access-date=9 June 2022 |archive-date=18 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220718023623/http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/search-9/search/artist:paula-rego |url-status=live }} ten works in the collection of the Arts Council of England,{{cite web |title=Artist: Paula Rego |url=https://artscouncilcollection.org.uk/explore/artist/rego-paula |website=Arts Council Collection}} and 48 works at the Tate Gallery, London.{{cite web |title=Artworks: Paula Rego |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/search?type=artwork&q=paula+rego |website=Tate Collection |access-date=9 June 2022 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713022456/https://www.tate.org.uk/search?type=artwork&q=Paula+Rego |url-status=live }}

A huge embroidery by Paula Rego (250 × 650 centimeters) depicts the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, which pitted the troops of King Sebastian I of Portugal against those of the Moroccan sultan Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik in 1578. The Portuguese were crushed, their king killed, and Spain took the opportunity to invade their country. The embroidery (commissioned to decorate a hotel in the Algarve, but refused by the client) was displayed at the "Paula Rego. Jeux de pouvoir" exhibition (Kunstmuseum, St. Alban-Graben 8, Basel, until February 2, 2025).Le Monde, Jan. 7, 2025

= Women's rights and abortion =

Rego spent much of her career focusing on women's rights and abortion rights.{{cite news |last= Shaw |first= Anny |date= 13 June 2019 |title= Paula Rego: 'retire? and do what? eat ice cream?' |url= https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/paula-rego-fantastical-beings-and-where-to-find-them |work= The Art Newspaper |access-date= 16 June 2019 |archive-date= 16 June 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190616164655/https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/paula-rego-fantastical-beings-and-where-to-find-them |url-status= live }} A critic of the anti-abortion movement, she used the theme of abortion as a focal point in much of her art. Rego opposed the criminalisation of abortion and said that the anti-abortion movement "criminalises women" and in some instances will force women to find potentially deadly "backstreet solutions". She also stated that it disproportionately affected poor women, as it was easier for the rich to find a safe abortion (irrespective of the law) because they could afford to travel abroad for the procedure.

Rego created an art series called Untitled: The Abortion Pastels documenting illegal abortions in response to Portugal's 1998 referendum on abortion.{{cite news |last= Bakare |first= Lanre |date= 31 May 2019 |title= Paula Rego calls US anti-abortion drive 'grotesque' |url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/31/paula-rego-calls-us-anti-abortion-drive-grotesque |work= The Guardian |access-date= 13 June 2019}} She began the series of ten pastels in July 1998, completing it over the approximately six months up to February 1999.{{cite journal | last=Strøm | first=Agnete | title='Untitled: The Abortion Pastels': Paula Rego's Series on Abortion | journal=Reproductive Health Matters | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=12 | issue=sup24 | year=2004 | issn=0968-8080 | doi=10.1016/s0968-8080(04)24014-9|doi-access= | pages=195–197| pmid=15938173 | s2cid=11886324 }} The referendum aimed to legalise abortions although the law was not passed. Rego expressed a feeling of rage, pointing out the "total hypocrisy" of the outcome.{{Cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igrv3gpT6qU|type=Video|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528183214/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igrv3gpT6qU|archive-date=28 May 2018|title=Abortion as a subject matter in my pictures (29/51)|first=Paula|last=Rego|date=18 September 2017|via=YouTube}} The pastels show images of women in positions such as fetal, squatting, etc., either getting ready to have an abortion, in the process of having one, or in pain from the procedure. In a 2002 interview Rego stated:

"The series was born from my indignation... It is unbelievable that women who have an abortion should be considered criminals. It reminds me of the past... I cannot abide the idea of blame in relation to this act. What each woman suffers in having to do it is enough. But all this stems from Portugal's totalitarian past, from women dressed up in aprons, baking cakes like good housewives. In democratic Portugal today there is still a subtle form of oppression... The question of abortion is part of all that violent context."{{Cite journal|last=Lopes|first=Isabela Pereira|date=10 December 2020|title=DIÁRIO DA QUARENTENA DE UMA PROFESSORA DA INFÂNCIA: APROXIMAÇÕES COM BOAVENTURA, AGAMBEN E KRENAK|journal=Revista Interinstitucional Artes de Educar|volume=6|issue=4|doi=10.12957/riae.2020.52249|issn=2359-6856|doi-access=free}}

The paintings were published in several Portuguese newspapers before a second referendum on abortion in 2007, which reversed the 1998 result; it is thought that the paintings significantly affected the result.{{Cite news |title='These women are not victims' – Paula Rego's extraordinary Abortion series |last=Judah |first=Hettie |work=The Guardian |date=9 June 2022 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/09/women-not-victims-paula-rego-extraordinary-abortion-series}}

Rego used two typical tropes of Western art history: "the gaze" and "the reclining nude".{{Cite web|date=29 May 2019|title=Our Future Revisited In Paula Rego's Untitled: The Abortion Pastels|first=Ellen C.|last=Caldwell|url=https://www.riotmaterial.com/paula-rego-untitled-abortion-pastels/|website=Riot Material|access-date=9 April 2021|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225155749/https://www.riotmaterial.com/paula-rego-untitled-abortion-pastels/|url-status=live}} She utilised "the gaze" in conscious ways to challenge the viewer by having the woman or girl look directly at the viewer or away in agony or closing her eyes in pain. The "reclining nude" brings up the push and pull between sexual attraction, the act of sex and the physical outcomes like pregnancy and miscarriage that occur as a result of sex.

Personal life and death

File:Flag at half-mast for Paula Rego.jpg flying at half-mast at the Museu Colecção Berardo following Rego's death]]

At the Slade School of Fine Art, Rego began an affair with fellow student Victor Willing, who was already married to another artist, Hazel Whittington. Rego had many abortions during their affair, starting from when she was 18 years old, because Willing had threatened to return to his wife if Rego kept their child.

In 1957, Rego left the UK to live in Ericeira in Portugal because she had decided to keep their latest baby. After the birth of their first child, Willing joined her there. They were able to marry in 1959 following Willing's divorce from his wife.[http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/victor-willing/biography.aspx "Victor Willing: Biography"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802074431/http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/victor-willing/biography.aspx |date=2 August 2019 }}, Casa das Historias Paula Rego, Retrieved 23 May 2014. Rego had two daughters, Caroline 'Cas' Willing and Victoria Willing, and a son, Nick Willing, with Victor Willing. Nick is a film-maker, who directed a television film, Paula Rego, Secrets & Stories, about his mother in 2017. The Australian sculptor Ron Mueck is her son-in-law.

In 1962, Rego's father bought the couple a house in London, at Albert Street in Camden Town, and Rego's time was spent divided between Britain and Portugal. Her husband had several extra-marital affairs throughout their marriage, and some of his mistresses were depicted in Rego's drawings.{{cite magazine |title=The Fury and Mischief of Paula Rego |first=Anna |last=Russell |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-fury-and-mischief-of-paula-rego |magazine=The New Yorker |date=29 July 2021 |access-date=27 September 2021 |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921035501/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-fury-and-mischief-of-paula-rego |url-status=live }}

In 1966, Rego's father died, and the family electrical business was taken over by Rego's husband, Victor, although he had himself been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, had no experience of electrical engineering or management, and spoke only limited Portuguese. Victor's heavy drinking had worried his father-in-law, who had advised the couple to sell the business after his death and return to England. The company failed in 1974 following the Carnation Revolution that overthrew the country's right-wing Estado Novo dictatorship, when its production works were taken over by revolutionary forces although Rego's family had been supporters of the political Left. In response Rego, Willing and their children moved permanently to London and spent most of their time there until Willing's death in 1988.Fiona Bradley (ed.), Victor Willing (London: August Media, 2000) pp. 10f{{Cite web |title=Paula Rego|author= |website=Saatchi Gallery |date= |access-date=9 June 2022 |url= https://www.saatchigallery.com/artist/paula_rego|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227133735/http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/paula_rego.htm|archive-date=27 February 2014}}

Rego was a supporter of the football club S.L. Benfica, of which her grandfather was a founding member.{{cite web |url=https://www.record.pt/futebol/futebol-nacional/liga-bwin/benfica/detalhe/paula-rego-o-meu-clube-e-o-benfica-884558 |title=Paula Rego: "O meu clube é o Benfica" |language=pt |trans-title=Paula Rego: "My club is Benfica" |date=22 May 2014 |website=Record}}

She died after a short illness on 8 June 2022 at the age of 87 and was buried with Victor Willing in Hampstead Cemetery.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/08/paula-rego-artist-dies-aged-87 |title=Artist Paula Rego, known for her visceral and unsettling work, dies aged 87 |date=8 June 2022 |last=Abdul |first=Geneva |website=The Guardian |access-date=8 June 2022}}

Style and influences

Rego was a prolific painter and printmaker, and in earlier years also produced collage work.Sue Hubbard, "Paula Rego", Print Quarterly, March 2013, pp. 112–115. Her well-known depictions of folk tales{{Cite web|url=http://www.marlboroughfineart.com/biography-Paula-Rego-30.html|title=Biography: Paula Rego|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907171720/http://www.marlboroughfineart.com/biography-Paula-Rego-30.html |archive-date=7 September 2015|publisher=Marlborough Fine Art}} and images of young girls, made largely since 1990, brought together methods of painting and printmaking that emphasised strong, clearly drawn forms, in contrast to the looser style of her earlier paintings.

In her earliest works, such as Always at Your Excellency's Service, painted in 1961, Rego was strongly influenced by Surrealism, and particularly the work of Joan Miró.Victor Willing, 'The Imagiconography of Paula Rego', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) p. 37 This shows itself not only in the type of imagery that appears in these works, but in the method employed, which is based on the Surrealist idea of automatic drawing, in which the artist attempts to disengage the conscious mind from the drawing process in order to allow the unconscious mind to direct the making of an image.Fiona Bradley, 'Introduction: Automatic Narratives', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) pp. 9f At times these paintings verged on abstraction. However, as exemplified by Salazar Vomiting the Homeland, painted in 1960, when Portugal's right-wing dictator Salazar was in power, even when her work veered toward abstraction, a strong narrative element remained in place.Ruth Rosengarten, 'Home Truths: The Work of Paula Rego', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) p. 44

There are two principal reasons why Rego adopted a semi-abstract style in the 1960s. First, abstraction dominated in avant-garde artistic circles at the time, which had set figurative art on the defensive. But Rego was also reacting against her training at the Slade School of Art, where there had been a very strong emphasis on anatomical figure drawing. Under the encouragement of her fellow student and later husband Victor Willing while at the Slade, Rego kept alongside her official school sketchbooks a "secret sketchbook" in which she made free-form drawings that would have been frowned upon by her tutors.Judith Collins, 'Paula Rego's Drawings', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) pp. 121f Rego's dislike of crisp drawing techniques in the 1960s revealed itself not only in the style of such works as Faust and her Red Monkey series of the 1980s, which resembled expressionistic comic-book drawing, but in her acknowledged influences at the time, which included Jean Dubuffet and Chaïm Soutine.John McEwen, Paula Rego (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1992) pp. 52-56

A notable change in Rego's style emerged in 1990, following her appointment as the first Associate Artist of the National Gallery in London in what was effectively an artist-in-residence scheme. Her remit was to "make new work that in some way connects to the National Gallery Collection."{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/associate-artist-scheme/about-the-scheme/about-associate-artist-scheme|title=About the Associate Artist Scheme {{!}} Learning {{!}} National Gallery, London|website=www.nationalgallery.org.uk|access-date=8 March 2016|archive-date=2 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802074432/https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/associate-artist-scheme/about-the-scheme/about-associate-artist-scheme|url-status=dead}} The National Gallery is overwhelmingly an Old Masters collection and Rego seems to have been pulled back towards a much clearer, or tighter, linear style reminiscent of the highly-wrought drawing technique that she was taught at the Slade. The result was a series of works that came to characterise the popular perception of her style, combining strong clear drawing with depictions of equally strong women in sometimes disturbing situations. Works such as Crivelli's Garden had clear links to the paintings by Carlo Crivelli in the National Gallery, but other works made at the time, such as Joseph's Dream and The Fitting, drew from works by Old Masters such as Diego Velázquez, in terms of subject matter and spatial representation.Ruth Rosengarten, 'Home Truths: The Work of Paula Rego', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) p. 75

Rego gave up working with collage in the late 1970s, and began using pastels as a medium in the early 90s. She continued to use pastels up to her death, almost to the exclusion of oil paint.Secher, Benjamin. [https://web.archive.org/web/20140626223039/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3647796/In-the-studio-Paula-Rego.html "In the studio: Paula Rego"], The Daily Telegraph, Retrieved 22 May 2014. Among her most notable works in pastel were those in her Dog Women series, in which women were shown sitting, squatting, scratching, and generally behaving as if they were dogs, the antithesis of what is considered feminine behaviour. Paula Rego challenges traditional female depictions by illustrating women in their natural state of strength and power, showing the reality of womanhood rather than trying to satisfy the gaze of the viewer.{{Cite journal |last=Strom |first=A |date=2004 |title=Untitled: The Abortion Pastels: Paula Rego's Series on Abortion |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3776131 |journal=Reproductive Health Matters |volume=12 |issue=24 |pages=195–197 |doi=10.1016/S0968-8080(04)24014-9 |jstor=3776131 |pmid=15938173 |s2cid=11886324 |archive-date=27 May 2023 |access-date=24 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527210038/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3776131 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Rego embraces sensational behaviors that are not necessarily considered to be feminine by social constructs, yet all people experience this humanistic feeling.{{cite web | title=The Evolving Works of Paula Rego, Master of Power & Politics |author=| publisher=TheBaer Faxt|year=2023| url=https://thebaerfaxt.com/the-evolving-works-of-paula-rego/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128170235/https://thebaerfaxt.com/the-evolving-works-of-paula-rego/ | archive-date=28 November 2023 | url-status=dead}} The Dog Women series acts on the beauty of vulnerability, focusing on the raw aggression of erotic vitality that women have been restrained from outwardly expressing. Using pastels for an immense piece of work, Rego manipulates her medium by physically casting her emotional intensity as oil pastels allow her to showcase her violent passion.{{Cite web |date=October 11, 2017 |title=Interview with Paula Rego |url=https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-paula-rego/ |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=The White Review |language=en-US |archive-date=24 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524211440/https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-paula-rego/ |url-status=live }} This and others of her works in which there appeared to be either the threat of female violence or its actual manifestation caused Rego to be associated with feminism. She acknowledged having read Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, a key feminist text, at a young age, and that this had made a deep impression on her.John McEwen, Paula Rego (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1992) p. 47 Her work also seemed to chime with the interest in Freudian criticism shown by feminist writers on art in the 1990s, such as Griselda Pollock, with works such as Girl Lifting up her Skirt to a Dog of 1986 and Two Girls and a Dog of 1987 appearing to have disturbing sexual undertones.Fiona Bradley, 'Introduction: Automatic Narratives', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) pp. 13–19 However, Rego was known to rebuke critics who read too much sexual content into her work. Another explanation for her depiction of women as unfeminine, animalistic or brutal beings is that this reflected the reality of women as human beings in the physical world, rather than the idealised female type in the minds of men.Fiona Bradley, 'Introduction: Automatic Narratives', in Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997) p. 19

She used acrylic paint for The Vivian girls as windmillsCAM: [https://gulbenkian.pt/cam/en/artist/paula-rego-2/] (1984, Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian), inspired by Henry Darger's "In the Realms of the Unreal."

File:Paula Rego 1996 nursery rhymes exhibition poster.jpg

Bibliography

= Exhibition catalogues =

= Books =

José Augusto França: Pintura portuguesa no século XX, Livraria Bertrand, Lisbon (1974)
Rui Mário Gonçalves: Pintura e escultura em Portugal, 1940 – 1980, Lisbon, Instituto de Cultura, Lisbon (1984)
Alexandre Melo e Joao Pinharanda: Arte Contemporânea Portuguesa, Lisbon (1986)
Bernardo Pinto de Almeida: Breve introdução à pintura portuguesa no século XX, Edição do Author, Oportof (1986)
Nursery Rhymes, Thames and Hudson (1989)
Hector Obalk: Paula Rego, Art Random, Kyoto Shoin International Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan (1991)
John McEwen: Paula Rego, Phaidon Press Ltd., London (1992)
Marina Warner, Wonder Tales, Chatto & Windus, London (1994)
A Portfolio – Nine London Birds, Byam Shaw School of Art, London, introduction by John McEwen (1994)
John McEwen, Paula Rego, Phaidon Press, London (1996)
Blake Morrison, Pendle Witches, Enitharmon Press, London (1996)
John McEwen, Dancing Ostriches, Saatchi Publications (1996)
Paula Rego, Tate Gallery Publications (1997)
Alexandre Melo, Artes Plàsticas em Portugal, Dos Anos 70 aos nossos Dias, Difel, Portugal, pp 28–31, 104–107 (1998).
Marco Livingstone, Paula Rego – Grooming, in Art: The Critics' Choice, Aurum Press, London (1998).
Ruth Rosengarten, Getting Away with Murder – Paula Rego and the crime of Father Amaro, Delos Press, Birmingham (1999)
Fiona Bradley (ed.), Victor Willing, August Publishers (2000)
Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego, Tate Publishing (2002)
Maria Manuel Lisboa, Paula Rego's Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Hampshire (2003)
Stephen Stuart-Smith with introduction by Marina Warner, Paula Rego – Jane Eyre, Enitharmon Editions, London (2003)
T. G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work I, Thames & Hudson, London (2003)
Ruth Rosengarten, Compreender Paula Rego – 25 Perspectivas, Publico Serralves (2004)
T. G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work II, Thames & Hudson, London (2003).
Ruth Rosengarten, "Narrating the Family Romance: Love and Authority in the Work of Paula Rego", Manchester University Press (2011).{{cite book | last=Rosengarten | first=Ruth | title=Love and authority in the work of Paula Rego: narrating the family romance | publisher=Manchester University Press | publication-place=Manchester [England] | date=2011 | isbn=978-0-7190-8070-8 | oclc=662578198}}
T. G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work, Thames & Hudson, London (2012){{cite book | last=Rosenthal | first=T. G. | title=Paula Rego: the complete graphic work | publisher=Thames & Hudson | publication-place=London | date=2012 | isbn=978-0-500-09368-9 | oclc=776773689}}

Public collections

Rego's works are held in public institutions including:

Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal{{cite web|url=http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/public-collections.aspx|title=Paula Rego – Public Collections|publisher=Casa das Histórias – Paula Rego|access-date=9 June 2022|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812165238/http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/public-collections.aspx|url-status=dead}}
Arts Council England
Berardo Collection Museum, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal
British Council, London
British Museum, London
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery
The Chapel of Belém Palace, Lisbon{{cite web|url=http://www.monumentos.pt/Site/APP_PagesUser/SIPA.aspx?id=6547|url-status=live |title=Palácio Nacional de Belém |publisher=SIPA – Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico |location=Lisbon, Portugal |language=pt |first1=Teresa |last1=Vale |first2=Carlos |last2=Gomes |year=1994–2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928232439/http://www.monumentos.pt/Site/APP_PagesUser/SIPA.aspx?id=6547 |archive-date=28 September 2011 }}
Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, Cascais, Portugal
Frissiras Museum, Athens{{cite web|url=http://frissirasmuseum.com/english/collection.aspx?id=51|title=Collection|publisher=frissiramuseum.com|access-date=9 June 2022|archive-date=18 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220718135431/http://frissirasmuseum.com/english/collection.aspx?id=51|url-status=live}}
Leeds Art Gallery
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon{{cite web|url=https://enitharmon.co.uk/artist/paula-rego/|title=Dame Paula Rego – Visual Artist|publisher=Enitharmon.co.uk|access-date=9 June 2022|archive-date=28 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528235014/https://enitharmon.co.uk/artist/paula-rego/|url-status=live}}
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Gallery, London
National Portrait Gallery, London{{cite web |title=Dame Paula Rego – Person – National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp08183 |website=National Portrait Gallery, London |access-date=8 June 2022}}
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, in the New Hall Art Collection
Rugby Museum and Art Gallery
Tate Gallery, London{{cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paula-rego-1823|title=Paula Rego born 1935|publisher=Tate.org.uk|access-date=9 June 2022|archive-date=11 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611115517/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paula-rego-1823|url-status=live}}
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Yale Center for British Art

Awards and recognition

File:Casa das Histórias Paula Rego.JPG, Portugal]]

Rego's first award was a bursary from the Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon in 1962–63. The organisation held a retrospective solo exhibition of her work in 1988.{{Cite web |title=Paula Rego – Solo Exhibitions |url=http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/solo-exhibitions.aspx |access-date=22 June 2019 |website=Casa das Histórias – Museu Paula Rego |archive-date=12 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812165237/http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/paula-rego-and-victor-willing/paula-rego/solo-exhibitions.aspx |url-status=dead }}

She went on to receive honorary degrees: a Master of Arts from the Winchester School of Art in 1992, Doctorate of Letters from the University of St Andrews and the University of East Anglia, both in 1999, the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000, the London Institute in 2002, and the University of Oxford and Roehampton University in 2005. In 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Lisbon and in 2013 she was elected Honorary Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, receiving an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Cambridge in 2015.

She was appointed a Grand Officer of the Order of Saint James of the Sword by the President of Portugal in 1995{{Cite web |title=HISTÓRIA DA ORDEM MILITAR DE SANT'IAGO DA ESPADA |trans-title=History of the Military Order of Saint Iago of the Sword – Official Page of Portuguese Orders of Honour |author= |website=Página Oficial das Ordens Honoríficas Portuguesas |year=2011 |url=https://www.ordens.presidencia.pt/?idc=123&idi=1920 |language=pt |access-date=9 June 2022 |archive-date=10 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510200419/https://www.ordens.presidencia.pt/?idc=123&idi=1920 |url-status=live }} and a Grand Cross of the order in 2004, and was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours.Melkle, James. [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jun/12/honours-list-2010-queens-birthday "Queen's birthday honours list: the arts"], The Guardian, 12 June 2010.{{Cite web|url=http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/paula-rego-ra|title=Dame Paula Rego RA (1935 – 2022)|website=Royal Academy of Arts|access-date=8 June 2022|archive-date=8 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220608132126/https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/paula-rego-ra|url-status=live}} In 2019, she was awarded the Portuguese government's Medal of Cultural Merit.

In 2009, a museum dedicated to Rego's work and designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, was opened in Cascais, Portugal, and several key exhibitions of her work have since been staged there.[http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/building/casa-das-histórias.aspx "Building"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504022232/http://www.casadashistoriaspaularego.com/en/building/casa-das-hist%C3%B3rias.aspx |date=4 May 2019 }}, Casa das Historias Paula Rego, Retrieved 22 May 2014.

Rego also won the MAPFRE Foundation Drawing Prize in Madrid in 2010.{{Cite magazine|url=https://documentacion.fundacionmapfre.org/documentacion/publico/es/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.do?path=1065653|language=pt|magazine=Revista de Fundación MAPFRE|page=40|title=Premios – Paula Rego recibe el Premio Penagos de Dibujo 2010|trans-title=Prizes – Paula Rego receives the Penagos Drawing Prize 2010|date=May 2011|issue=14|access-date=9 June 2022|archive-date=25 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625223416/https://documentacion.fundacionmapfre.org/documentacion/publico/es/catalogo_imagenes/grupo.do?path=1065653|url-status=live}} In 2017, she was one of the first five recipients of the Maria Isabel Barreno prize.{{Cite news |title=Prémio Maria Isabel Barreno distingue cinco mulheres da cultura portuguesa |trans-title=Five women of Portuguese culture receive distinction of Isabel Barreno Prize |newspaper=Diario de Noticias |date=10 October 2017 |url=https://www.dn.pt/lusa/premio-maria-isabel-barreno-distingue-cinco-mulheres-da-cultura-portuguesa-8832247.html |language=pt |archive-date=9 June 2022 |access-date=9 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220609074325/https://www.dn.pt/lusa/premio-maria-isabel-barreno-distingue-cinco-mulheres-da-cultura-portuguesa-8832247.html |url-status=live }}

In 2022, she was posthumously made a Grand Collar of the Order of Camões by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.{{Cite news |title=Marcelo lembrou Paula Rego em dia de luto nacional e decretou condecoração |trans-title=Marcelo evokes Paula Rego during day of national mourning and decrees decoration |newspaper=Observador |date=20 June 2022 |url=https://observador.pt/2022/06/30/marcelo-lembrou-paula-rego-em-dia-de-luto-nacional-e-decretou-condecoracao/ |language=pt}}

References

External links

{{Art UK bio}}
[https://casadashistoriaspaularego.com Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, Museum Page]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150928211434/http://www.marlboroughfineart.com/artist-Paula-Rego-30.html Marlborough Art Gallery, artists' page]
[http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/33805431001 Tate: In the Studio: Paula Rego] Printmaking with the artist at The Curwen Studio. 31 July 2008
[http://www.missomnimedia.com/2011/09/art-herstory-paula-rego Art HERStory: Paula Rego]
[https://www.webofstories.com/play/paula.rego/1 Paula Rego] at Web of Stories
{{NPG name|id= 08183}}

Category:1935 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:Burials at Hampstead Cemetery

Category:20th-century British painters

Category:20th-century British women artists

Category:21st-century British painters

Category:21st-century British women artists

Category:British abortion-rights activists

Category:Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art

Category:British contemporary artists

Category:British printmakers

Category:British women painters