Gallery Visit: Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature

The Paula Rego exhibition presents audiences with some of her most accessible work. Rego became an internationally celebrated artist a couple of decades before her death, a few years ago, so there is no shortage of material. The exhibition is clearly arranged and flows well, hung low on the wall along a strip of mustard yellow or slate blue, presumably to make it accessible for younger audiences, and laid out across the two rooms. 

These print series have been widely admired over the years. This was not always the case. She was mistakenly cast as 'the wife of Victor Willing', who was better known than her at the time. Then Rego was assigned 'Associate Artist' at the National Gallery, early on in that prestigious programme. She may even have been the first. This happened in the early nineties, and her work started to be re-appraised by art professionals, that had been up until that moment, a little slow off the mark to appreciate her point of view.

The scope of this exhibition keeps its focus on the artist's prints and graphics, encapsulating the literary subject matter she excelled in interpreting for adults and children.

“Throughout her life, Paula Rego used printmaking as a central tool of her art. Taking inspiration from literature, she connected with stories in very personal ways, using them to articulate the conditions of her own life and draw her desires, dreams, fears, and traumas into sequences of remarkable pictures."

Brian Cass, Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery Touring.

Artist Paula Rego (1935-2022) conjured up her figurative cast of character-based scenarios in series after series of paintings, drawings and prints that referenced themes from literature, her Portuguese heritage and modern morality, particularly in relation to the role of women in the family.

The exhibition brings together three of her series in printmaking: Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre. These series reflect the artist's fascination with folklore, fairy tales and a female point of view in classic literature. There is a calculated synergy between Rego's approach to visualising dark characterisations and the striking figures populating children's nursery rhymes.

Her visions of James Barrie's Neverland, and the turbulent relationships of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, explore childhood fantasy and moral ambiguity and her own feminist ideology, viewed through the artist's lens that stays with you long after your visit.

About the author

Paul Barratt

Paul Barratt started working in contemporary art galleries in 1989, having graduated in Fine Art from Goldmsith’s, London University. He initially worked at Anthony d’Offay Gallery, one of the contemporary art dealers, who dominated the London art market in the 80s and 90s. He was approached by the Lisson Gallery to be gallery manager for the influential art dealer Nicholas Logsdail. This was followed by a short period in New York at Gladstone Gallery, to work for visionary art dealer Barbara Gladstone, working with the artist and filmmaker Matthew Barney.

 

On his return to London, Paul secured a place on the postgraduate curatorial course at the Royal College of Art, to complete an MA. After graduation in 2001, he worked as an independent curator on several projects in Oslo, London, Brighton and Basel, before joining Paul Vater at his design agency Sugarfree in 2004. He has worked with Paul ever since.

View all posts by Paul Barratt