Paula Rego
Born – Lisbon, Portugal 1935
Paula Rego came to London in the early 1950s and began studying, “unofficially” as an art student at The Slade School in London. Here she met and fell in love with painter Victor Willing whom she later married. Under his influence, Rego learned to draw whatever came into her head. Such spontaneous activity became directed to the production of Expressionist pictures and collages. The death of her father in 1966 and the progressive illness of Willing delayed her own artistic development. In 1976 Rego received a grant to illustrate a series of Portuguese fairy-tales. At the same time Jungian therapy had encouraged her thoughts back to childhood themes. Stories became her art. Compositions of the early 1980s are like overloaded cartoons, colourfully packed with the energy of animals and creatures engaged in frenetic activity. Her work has become a more formal interpretation of the complications inherent in human relationships and associated symbols and metaphors. The vivid imagery of The Dance, for example, is inspired by Portuguese folk art and the caricatured figures and compositional format have their roots in classicism. The traditions of nineteenth-century illustrations inform her bold paintings which have a disquieting atmosphere and subversive narrative.
Masterpieces:
- Red Monkey Beats his Wife
- After Hogarth: Betrothal; Lessons; Wreck
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About paula rego
Paula Rego (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon))
John McEwen
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Paula Rego: Behind the Scenes
John McEwen
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Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work
T. G. Rosenthal
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