Paula Rego
Encyclopedia
Paula Rego is a painter born in Portugal
although she is a naturalised British citizen.
, the daughter of an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company
. Although this gave her a comfortable middle class home, the family was divided in 1936 when her father was posted to work in England. Accompanied by Rego's mother, they left Rego behind in Portugal in the care of her grandmother until 1939. Her grandmother was to become a significant figure in Rego's life as she learnt many of the traditional folktales that would one day make their way into her art work from her grandmother and the family maid.
Rego's family were keen Anglophiles, and Rego was sent to the only English language school in Portugal at the time, Saint Julian's School
in Carcavelos
from 1945 to 1951. Although nominally a Catholic
and living in a devoutly Catholic country, St Julian's School was Anglican
and this combined with the hostility of Rego's father for the Catholic Church to create a distance between her and full blooded Catholic belief. Rego has described herself as having become a 'sort of Catholic', but equally she possessed as a child a sense of Catholic guilt
and a very real belief that the Devil
is real.
In 1951 Rego was sent to England to attend a finishing school called The Grove School, in Sevenoaks, Kent. Unhappy here, Rego attempted in 1952 to start studies in art at the Chelsea School of Art in London, but this was thwarted by her legal guardian in Britain, David Phillips, who feared her parents might not approve of their daughter mixing with art students. Returning to Portugal for the holidays that summer Rego discovered quite the opposite was true, and so she applied to study art in London again, this time at the Slade School of Fine Art
, which she attended from 1952 to 1956.
At the Slade Rego met her future husband, Victor Willing
, also a student at the Slade, although he was already married at the time. Rego and Willing left London to live in Portugal with Rego's parents in 1957, and they were able to marry in 1959 following Willing's divorce. Three years later 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. In 1966 Rego's father died, and the family electrical business was taken over, unwillingly, by Rego's husband, although he had himself been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
. The company failed in 1974 during the Portuguese Revolution that overthrew the country's right wing Estado Novo (Portugal)
dictatorship, with the production works taken over by the revolutionary forces, even though Rego's family had been supporters of the political left. As a result Rego, Willing and their children moved permanently to London and spent most of their time there until Willing's death in 1988.
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 whilst she was still a student, Rego's artistic career effectively began in the early 1962 when she began showing with The London Group, a long established artists' organisation which included David Hockney
and Frank Auerbach
among its members. In 1965 she was selected by Roland Penrose
to take part in a group show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
(ICA) in London, and 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
. Between 1971 and 1978 she was to have seven solo shows in Portugal, in Lisbon and Oporto, and then a series of solo exhibitions in Britain, including at the AIR Gallery in London in 1981, the Arnolfini
in Bristol in 1983, and the Edward Totah Gallery, London in 1984, 1985 and 1987. She also held solo shows in Amsterdam at Espace in 1983, and the Art Place in New York in 1985.
In 1988 Rego was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
in Lisbon and the Serpentine Gallery
in London. This led on to Rego 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 organised by the gallery. From this emerged two sets of work. The first was a series of paintings and prints on the theme of nursery rhymes, which was toured around Britain and elsewhere by the Arts Council of Great Britain
and 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 are now housed in the main restaurant at the gallery.
Rego was signed by the London based gallery Marlborough Fine Art in 1987, and has shown there on numerous occasions, including a series of works based on Peter Pan
in 1992, the celebrated 'Dog Woman' series in 1994, and 'Oratorio', a triptych
format altarpiece
, in 2010 created for the exhibition 'Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego at the Foundling Museum', held at the Foundling Museum
, London.
Other exhibitions include 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 was also held of her work at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid in 2007, which travelled to the Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, the following year.
In 2008 Rego showed at Marlborough Chelsea in New York, and staged a retrospective of her graphic works at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Nimes. As well as showing at Marlborough Fine Art in London in 2010, the art critic Marco Livingstone organised a retrospective of her work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey, Mexico, which was later shown at the Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Rego has 43 works in the collection of the British Council
, 10 works in the collection of the Arts Council of England, 46 works in the Tate Gallery, London, and works in the British Government Art Collection, the British Museum, and the municipal collections of the cities of Bristol, Leicester, Rugby and Leeds in the United Kingdom, and the collections of the Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal, the Chapel of the Palacio de Belém, Portugal, the Frissiras Museum, Greece, and the Yale Center for British Art, in the USA.
She has received honorary doctorates from Winchester School of Art
, the University of East Anglia
, Rhode Island School of Design
and the University of Oxford
, and in 2004 was awarded the Grã Cruz da Ordem de Sant'Iago da Espada by the President of Portugal. In 2009 a museum dedicated to Rego's work was opened in the Portuguese town of Cascais
, and several key exhibitions of her work have since been staged here.
In 2010 she was made a Dame of the British Empire
in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2010 and in the same year won the MAPFRE Foundation Drawing Prize in Madrid. In 2012 she will have retrospective exhibition of her work will be staged at the new Gulbenkian Museum in Paris
Rego is represented by Marlborough Fine Art, London.
work. Her most well known depictions of folk tales and images of young girls, made largely since 1990, seem bring together the methods of painting and printmaking with an emphasis on strong and clearly drawn forms, in contrast to Rego's earlier more lose style paintings.
Yet in her earliest works, such as Always at Your Excellency's Service, painted in 1961, Rego was strongly influenced by Surrealism, particularly the work of Juan Miro. This manifested itself not only in the type of imagery that appeared in these works but in the method Rego employed which was based on the Surrealist idea of automatic drawing, in which the artist attempts to disengage the conscious mind from the making process to allow the unconscious mind to direct the image making. At times these paintings almost verged on abstraction, but as proven by Salazar Vomiting the Homeland, painted in 1960, even when her work veered toward abstraction a strong narrative element remained in place, with Salazar being the right-wing dictator of Portugal in power at the time.
There are two principal causes for Rego adopting a semi-abstract style in the 1960s. The first is the simple dominance of abstraction in avant garde artistic circles at the time, which set figurative art on the defensive. But Rego was also reacting against her training at the Slade School, where a very strong emphasis had been placed on anatomical figure drawing. Under the encouragement of her fellow student and later husband Victor Willing, Rego kept a 'secret sketchbook', alongside her official school sketchbooks, whilst at the Slade, in which she made free form drawings of a type that would have been frowned upon by her tutors. This apparent dislike of crisp drawing techniques in the 1960s manifested itself not only in the style of works such as Faust and the Red Monkey series of the 1980s, which resemble expressionistic comic book drawing, but in her acknowledged influences at the time, which included Jean Dubuffet
and Chaim Soutine
.
A notable change of style emerged in 1990 following Rego's appointment to be the first 'Associate Artist' of the National Gallery, London, which was effectively an artist-in-residence scheme. Her brief was to ' work in whatever way she wished around works in the collection.' As the National Gallery is overwhelmingly an Old Master
collection Rego seems to have been pulled back towards a much clearer, or tigher, linear style that is reminiscent of the highly wrought drawing technique she would have been taught at the Slade. The result of this was a series of works which came to characterise the popular perception of Rego's style, comprising strong clear drawing, with depictions of equally strong women in sometimes disturbing situations. Works like Crivelli's Garden have clear links to the paintings by Carlo Crivelli
in the National Gallery, but other works made at the time, like Joseph's Dream and The Fitting, also draw spatially and in their subject matter from Old Master works by artists such as Diego Velázquez
.
Having given up collage in the late 1970s, Rego began using pastels as a medium in the early 1990s, and continues to use this medium to this day, almost to the exclusion of oil paint. Amongst the most notable works made in pastel are those of her Dog Women series, in which women are shown sitting, squatting, scratching and generally behaving as if they are dogs. This antithesis of what is considered feminine behaviour, and many other works in which there appears to be either the threat of female violence or its actual manifestation, has associated Rego with feminism
, and she has acknowledged reading Simone de Beauvoir
's The Second Sex, a key feminist text, at a young age and this making a deep impression on her. Her work also chimed with the interest of feminist writers on art such as Griselda Pollock
in Freudian criticism in the 1990s, 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 Freudian sexual undertones. However Rego has been known to slap down critics who read too much sexual connotation into her work.
Another explanation for Rego's depiction of women as unfeminine, animalistic or brutal beings is that this reflects the physical reality of a woman as a human being in the physical world, and not idealised types in the minds of men.
Paula Rego, Serralves Museum, Oporto,
Paula Rego in Focus, Tate Britain,
2003-2004
Paula Rego, Corner 2004, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
2003
Paula Rego – Pendle Witches, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, Linden Mill, Hebden Bridge, N. Yorkshire, 18 June – 20 July
Jane Eyre and Other Stories, Marlborough Fine Art, London,
15 October –
22 November Paula Rego Jane Eyre, Galeria 111, Brito, Portugal, 8 November
2002
Paula Rego - Jane Eyre; Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York, 8 January – 2 February
2001
Paula Rego, Celestina’s House, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal,
11 June – 7 October, Travelling to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven,
18 April – 30 June 2002, Together with Paula Rego - Jane Eyre
Paula Rego- Nursery Rhymes e Outras Gravuras, Parque das Nacoes, Lisbon
So desenhos Paula Rego, Fundacao Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, 11 July – 30 September
2000
Paula Rego, Pendle Witches, Children’s Crusade and Drawings, Abbot Hall
ArtGallery, Kendal, 10 February – 12 March
1999
Paula Rego - The Children's Crusade - a suite of 12 etchings, Marlborough Graphics, London, 26 January - 27 February
Paula Rego - Recent Work, Marlborough Galeria SA, Madrid, 13 February -
27 March
Paula Rego O Crime do Padre Amaro, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian , Lisbon, 18 May - 29 August
Open Secrets – Drawings and Etchings by Paula Rego, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA, 18 September – 23 October; Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, 16 November – 20 December, curated by Memory Holloway; text by Memory Holloway and Ruth Rosengarten
Children’s Crusade, Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, 28 November – 24 December
Nursery Rhymes, White Gallery, Brighton, 21 November 1999 – 21 Jan 2000
1998
Paula Rego: Pendle Witches and Peter Pan, Midland Art Centre, 25 April –
21 May
Paula Rego – The Sins of Father Amaro, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 17 June -19 July
Paula Rego - Pra Lá et Pra Cá, Galerie III, Lisbon
Paula Rego – Pendle Witches, Harris Museum, 24 January – 15 March
Pendle Witches, Marlborough Galeria Madrid, 25 September – 18 October
1997
Paula Rego Retrospective exhibition, Tate Gallery Liverpool, 8 February -
13 April. Travelling to Fundação das Descobertas, Centro Cultural de Belém,
Lisbon, 15 May - 17 August, Lisbon
Nursery Rhymes, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus, 7–12 October. Travelling to Town Hall, Larnaca, Cyprus, 26–29 November.
Ainscough Gallery, 6 February – Mid March. Nodrum
1996
Nursery Rhymes, University Gallery, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
1995
Nursery Rhymes, Ty Llen, Cardiff Literature Festival (May - July)
Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan, Annandale Galleries,
Sydney Australia; Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
Keel university.
1994
Paula Rego, Dog Women, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria BC, Canada
1993
Nursery Rhymes, Cheltenham Literary Festival
1992-1993
Paula Rego Peter Pan & Other Stories, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Paula Rego Peter Pan, A Suite of 15 etchings and aquatints, Marlborough
Graphics, London
1991-1992
Tales from the National Gallery, Travelling Exhibition: Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery; Middlesbrough Art Gallery
; Whitworth Art Gallery,
Manchester; Cooper Art Gallery, Barnsley; the National Gallery, London;
The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
1991-1996
Nursery Rhymes, South Bank Centre, British Council, and Marlborough Graphics Travelling exhibition in the U.K., including: Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset; Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire; Hove Museum and Art Gallery; Vicarage Gallery, North Shields, Graphics Studio, Dublin.
1990-1991
Nursery Rhymes, British Council Travelling Exhibition in Europe
1990
Nursery Rhymes, Galeria III, Lisbon
Nursery Rhymes, Galeria Zen, Oporto
1989
Paula Rego ‑ Nursery Rhymes, Marlborough Graphics Gallery, London
Galeria III, ARCO, MadridGaleria III, Lisbon
1988
Retrospective Exhibition, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Casa de Serralves, Oporto; the Serpentine Gallery, London
1987
Selected work 1981‑1986, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and UK tour Edward Totah Gallery, London
1985
The Art Palace, New York
Edward Totah Gallery, London
1984
South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, Midland Group, Nottingham
Edward Totah Gallery, London
1983
Arnolfini, Bristol,
Galerie Espace, Amsterdam
1982
Galeria III, Lisbon, Edward Totah Gallery, London
1981
AIR Gallery, London
1978
Galeria III, Lisbon
1977
Módulo Centro Difusor da Arte, Oporto
1975
Módulo Centro Difusor da Arte, Lisbon
1974
Galeria da Emenda, Lisbon
1972
Galeria Alvarez, Oporto
1971
Galeria São Mamede, Lisbon
1965
SNBA, Lisbon
The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Pastel Society, Pall Mall, 2–13 March
Only Make Believe, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 23 March – 5 June
O Nome Que No Peito Escrito Tinhas, Alcobaça Monastery, Portugal,
Artists include: Paula Rego, Julião Sarmento, Vasco Araújo, João Pedro Vale and Adriana Molder. Exhibition Curated by Alexandre Melo, August
Guys’n’Dolls. Art, Science, Fashion and Relationships, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, 23 April – 12 June
2004
Five Painters from Portuguese Modernity (1911–1965), Amadeo de Souza-Cardosa, Almada Negreiros, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Joaquin Rodrigo & Paula Rego, La Pedrera, Fundaçao Caixa de Catalan, Barcelona, 17 February - 16 May. Catalogue introductions by Pedro Lapa and Jaume Vidal Oliveras.
BODY. From Munch to Melgaard, Kistefos Museum, Norway, 12 May – 20 September
2003
The Enduring Image, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Catalogue introduction by Hannah Neale
La Fête, Le Bellevue, Biarritz, Museo Valenciano de la
Illustración y la Modernidad, Valencia, Exhibition
Curated by Solange Auzias de Turenne,
Escuela de Londres, Marlborough Madrid, Centro Cultural Caja de Granada, Puerta Real, Granada, Catalogue introduction by Fernando Huici.
2002
Belas Artes Centenary Exhibition, Lisbon
London International Small Print Biennale, Morley Gallery The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, March Coming of Age – Works from the Tate Collection, The New Art Gallery, Walsall,
Metamorphing, The Science Museum, London,
Heavenly Creatures – Paula Rego and Ron Mueck, The British School at Rome,
2000-2001
British Art Show 5, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre Travelling exhibition
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Southampton City Art Gallery, National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery,
The School of London and their Friends – The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase,
1998
Recollection Kunstverein, Graz
Georg Herold / Albert Oehlen Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Selbstportraits Galerie Barbel Grasslin, Frankfurt
Fast Forward Archives Kunstverein, Hamburg
1997
Display Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen
1996
On Paper II Schmidt Contemporary Art, St Louis
Peinture-Peinture Galerie Samia Saouma, Paris
Provins – Legende Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde
1995
Open Studio, The Florence Trust, London
Summer exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Peep, Brighton Museum in collaboration with the Institute of International
Visual Art
New Acquisitions, National Portrait Gallery, London
1994-95
An American Passion - the Summer Collection of Contemporary British Painting,
The McLellan Galleries, Glasgow; The Royal College of Art, London
1994
Unbound - Possibilities in Painting, Hayward Gallery, London
Waves of Influence (Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan graphics), Snug Harbour Cultural Center, Statton Island, New York
Here and Now, Serpentine Gallery, London
John Murphy, Avis Newman, Paula Rego, The Saatchi Gallery, London
1993-1994
Writing on the Wall - Women Writers on Women Artists, Tate Gallery, London,
October 1993 - April 1994; travelling to the Norwich Castle Museum and the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1992-1993
Innocence and Experience, Manchester City Art Galleries and South Bank Centre
Travelling Exhibition: Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Castle Museum, Nottingham; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Life into Paint: British Figurative Painting of the 20th Century, Israel Museum,
Jerusalem
1992
Myth, Dream and Fable, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
1991-1992
From Bacon to Now ‑ The Outsider in British Figuration, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
The Primacy of Drawing - An Artist's View, South Bank Centre travelling
exhibition: Bristol Museum and Art Gallery; Stoke-on-Tent Art Gallery; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield
1991
Modern Painters ‑ A Memorial Exhibition for Peter Fuller, City Art Galleries, Manchester
Triptico, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
1990-1991
British Art Now: A Subjective View, British Council Travelling Exhibition, Japan
The Great British Art Exhibition, Glasgow
Eleventh International Print Biennale, Bradford
1990
Now for the Future, Hayward Gallery, London; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1989-1990
Picturing People: Figurative Art in Britain 1945 - 1989, British Council Travelling Exhibition: National Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Hong Kong Museum of Art; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
1989
Ines de Castro, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
1988
Works on Paper by contemporary artists, Marlborough Fine Art, London
35 Pinturas de Colecçao do Banco Portugues do Atlantico, Casa de Serralves, Oporto
Cries and Whispers, British Council Travelling exhibition, Australia
Narrative paintings, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Objects and Image, Aspects of British Art in the 1980s, Stoke-on-Trent Art Gallery
1987
Art Contemporáneo Portugués, Madrid
Current Affairs‑British Painting and Sculpture in the 1980s, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia
70 ‑ 80: Arte Portuguesa, Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro
Alberto da Lacerdo ‑ O Mundo de un poeta, Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisbon
30 Obras de Arte Uniao de Bancos Portugeses, Case de Serralves, Oporto
Feira do Circo, Forum Picoas, Lisbon
Exposição Amadeo Souza‑Cardoso, Casa de Serralves, Oporto
Obras de uma Colecçao Particular, Casa de Serralves, Oporto
1986
A primeira década , Módulo‑Centro Difusor da Arte, Lisbon
Le XXéme au Portugal, Centre Albert Borchette, Brussels
Teira Exposiçao de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon.
AICA‑PHILAE, SNBA, Lisbon
Love Sacred and Profane, Plymouth
The Human Zoo, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham
Contemporary British and Malaysian Art, National Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Nove‑Nine Portuguese Painters, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
1985
Passion and Power, La Mama and Gracie Mansion, New York
1985
The British Art Show, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Diálogo sobre arte contemporanea, Centro de Arte Moderna; Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Bienale de Paris
Animals, Edward Totah Gallery, London
Exposição Diálogo, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool
Bienal de São Paulo (representing Britain)
1984
1984 ‑ an exhibition, Camden Arts Centre, London
Os Novos Primitivos, Cooperative Arvore, Oporto
1983
Third Biennale of Graphic Arts, Baden Baden
Eight in the Eighties, New York
Marathon 83, New York
1982
Three Women, Edward Totah Gallery, London
Inner Worlds, Midland Group, Nottingham
Pintura portuguesa contemporanea, Museu Luis de Camões, Macau
Hayward Annual, London
John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool
1981
Artists in Camden, Camden Arts Centre, London
Ante‑visão do Centro de Arte Moderna, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, LisbonThe Subjective Eye, Midland Group, Nottingham
1979
Femina, UNESCO, Paris
1978
Portuguese Art since 1910, Royal Academy of Art, London
Exposição individual, Galeria III, Lisbon
1977
Artistas Portugueses en Madrid ‑ Pintura e Escultura Contemporaneas, Madrid
1976
Arte Portugués Contemporanea, Galerie Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome
Art Portugais Contemporain, Musée d'Art Contemporain de la Ville de Paris
Exposiçao de Arte Moderna Portuguesa, SNBA, Lisbon
1975
XIII Bienal de São Paulo
Figuraçao Hoje, Lisbon
1974
Expo AICA, SNBA
1973
Pintura portuguesa de hoje‑abstractos e Neo‑figurativos, Lisbon, Salamanca, Barcelona
26 Artistas de Hoje, Lisbon
Exposição de Artistas Modernas Portugueses, Galleria Quadrum, Lisbon
1970
Novos Sintomas na pintura portuguesa , Galeria Judite Dacruz, Lisbon
1969
Represented Portugal in the XI Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
Gravure Portugaise Contemporaine, Paris
1967
Bienal de Tokyo
Novas Iconologias, Lisbon
Art Portugais ‑ Peinture et sculpture de Naturalisme à nos jours, Brussels, Paris, Madrid
1965
Six Artists, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
1961
Segunda Exposição de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Calouste Goulbenkian, Lisbon
1955
Young Contemporaries, London
Il Exposiçao de Artes Plasticas, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Paula Rego, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
1965
Alberto de Lacerda: 'Fragmentos de um poema intitulado Paula Rego', Paula Rego, SNBA, LisbonVictor Willing: Six Artists, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 1965
1967
Art Portugais - Peinture et Sculpture de Naturalisme à nos jours, Brussels
1971
Paula Rego Expoé, Galeria São Mameda, Lisbon
1972
Esposiçao Colectiva, Galeria Sâo Mamede, Lisbon
1974
Salette Taveres: 'A Estrutura Semântica na obra de Paula Rego', Expo AICA, SNBA
1978
Helmut Wohl: Portugese Art since 1910, Royal Academy of Art, London
1983
Victor Willing: Paula Rego: Paintings 1982 - 3 Arnolfini, Bristol; Galerie Espace, Amsterdam
1984
Deanna Petherbridge: 'Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1984' Camden Arts Centre, London
1985
Lynne Cooke: Paula Rego: Paintings 1984 - 5 Edward Totah
Gallery, London, text by Lynne Cooke
Alexander Moffat: 'Retrieving the Image', The British Art Show, Arts Council of
Great Britain
1986
Alistair Hicks: Paula Rego: Selected Work 1981 - 1986,
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Nine Portuguese Painters, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
1987
70 - 80 Arte Portuguesa , Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
Lewis Biggs and David Elliott, Current Affairs, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Feira do Circo, Forum Picoas, Lisbon
Paula Rego: Girl and Dog, Edward Totah Gallery, London,
1988
Works on paper by contemporary artists, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Victor Willing: Inevitable Prohibitions; Ruth Rosengarten, La Règle du Jeu and John McEwen In Conversation with Paula Rego, Bernardo Pinto de Almeida Paula no Pais das Maravilhas, Paula Rego, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and Serpentine Gallery, LondonLewis Biggs: A context for the exhibitions, Cries and Whispers, British Council
1989
Marina Warner Essay in Nursery Rhymes, Marlborough Graphics Gallery, London
1990
John McEwen, Paula Rego The Nursery Rhymes, South Bank Centre Touring Exhibition
1991
Keith Patrick, Maité Lores: From Bacon to Now ‑ The Outsider in British Figuration, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
Germaine Greer and Colin Wiggins Essays for Tales from the National Gallery, National Gallery, London
Deanna Petherbridge: The Primacy of Drawing - An Artist's View, South Bank
Centre travelling exhibition
1993
Peter Pan & Other Stories, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Peter Pan - A Suite of 15 etchings and aquatints, Marlborough Graphics London
Judith Collins & Elspeth Linder editors: Writing on the Wall - Women Writers on
Women Artists, Tate Gallery, published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London
1994
Adrian Searle, Unbound - Possibilities in Painting, Hayward Gallery, London
Paula Rego: Dog Women, Marlborough Fine Art, London
1995
An American Passion - The Susan Kasen Summer and Robert D. Summer Collection of Contemporary British Paintings, catalogue edited by Patricia Saligmen
1996
Spellbound - Art and Film, Hayward Gallery, London, text by Marcia Pointon
Paula Rego: The Dancing Ostriches from Disney's Fantasia, Marlborough Fine Art, London and Saatchi Collection, London. Introduction by Sarah Kent, essay
by John McEwen
Marcia Pointon, Familiarity, Fear and the Boundaries of the Body in Paula Rego's Dialogue with Disney, Paula Rego - New Work, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York
1994-1995
An American Passion - The Susan Kasen Summer and Robert D. Summer Collection of Contemporary British Paintings, catalogue edited by Patricia Saligmen
1996
Spellbound - Art and Film, Hayward Gallery, London, text by Marcia Pointon
Paula Rego: The Dancing Ostriches from Disney's Fantasia, Marlborough Fine Art, London and Saatchi Collection, London. Introduction by Sarah Kent, essay
by John McEwen
Marcia Pointon, Familiarity, Fear and the Boundaries of the Body in Paula Rego's Dialogue with Disney, Paula Rego - New Work, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York
1997
Nicholas Serota & Lewis Biggs, Preface; Fiona Bradley, Introduction: Automatic Narrative; Victor Willing, The Imagiconography of Paula Rego; Ruth Rosengarten, Home Truths: The Work of Paula Rego; Judith Collins, Paula Rego's Drawing. The Tate Gallery, Liverpool, Retrospective Exhibition:
Travelling to: Fundação das Descobertas, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon
1998
Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Paula Rego, Dulwich Picture Gallery
1998-99
Dina Vierny, Bertrand Lorquin, Michael Peppiatt, Jill Lloyd: The School of London - From Bacon to Bevan, Musée Maillol, Paris; Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela
1999
Peter Weiermair, Andreas Hapkemeyer, Figuration, Blickle Stiftung Bruchsal; Rupertinum Salzburg; Bolzano Museum
Roger Bevan Introduction, Portrait of a City - Seven Figurative Painters from London, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
2000
Timothy Hyman, Roger Malbert, Carnivalesque, Hayward Gallery Travelling Exhibition: Brighton Museum; Nottingham Castle Museum
Richard Morphet, Robert Rosenblum, Judith Bumpus, Keith Hartley,
Andrew Lambirth, Marco Livingstone, Christopher Riopelle: Encounters: New Art from Old, National Gallery, London
2001
Pippa Coles, Mathew Higgs, Jacqui Poncelet, British Art Show 5, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre Travelling exhibition: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Southampton City Art Gallery; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Patrick McCaughey , Richard Cork, Emily M. Weeks, The School of London and their Friends – The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, USA.
2001-2002
Paula Rego, Celestina’s House, Abbott Hall Art Gallery, Kendal & Yale Center for British Art. Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego – Recent Works; Edward King interview with Paula Rego
2002
Marina Warner, Metamorphing, The Science Museum, London.
Paula Rego- Jane Eyre, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
2004
Paula Rego, Serralves Museum, Oporto, 15 October 2004-23 January 2005.
João Fernandes, Introduction and The Stories by Paula Rego, between Painting and Drawing: Ruth Rosengarten: Possessed: Love and Authority in the work of Paula Rego; Marco Livingstone: All that is left behind. Serralves Museum, Oporto. Published in English and Portuguese
Christina Bagatavicius, Paula Rego in Focus, Tate Britain, October 2004-January 2005
José Augusto França: Pintura portuguesa no século XX, Livraria Bertrand, Lisbon, 1974, 1986
1984
Rui Mário Gonçalves: Pintura e escultura em Portugal, 1940–1980, Lisbon, Instituto
de Cultura, Lisbon
1986
Alexandre Melo e Joao Pinharanda: Arte Contemporânea Portuguesa, Lisbon
Bernardo Pinto de Almeida: Breve introdução à pintura portuguesa no século XX, Edição do Autor, Oportof
1989
Nursery Rhymes, Thames and Hudson
1991
Hector Obalk: Paula Rego, Art Random, Kyoto Shoin International Co. Ltd., Kyoto,
Japan
1992
John McEwen: Paula Rego, Phaidon Press Ltd., London
1993
The Art Book, Phaidon Press Ltd, London
Peter Pan, Folio Society
1994
Marina Warner, Wonder Tales, Chatto & Windus, London
A Portfolio - Nine London Birds, published by the Byam Shaw School of Art, London,
introduction by John McEwen
1995
Diana Eccles, Barbara Putt, editors, British Council Collection Catalogue Volume II
1996
John McEwen, Paula Rego, Phaidon Press, London, updated edition in paperback
Blake Morrison, Pendle Witches, Enitharmon Press, London
John McEwen, Dancing Ostriches, Saatchi Publications
1997
Paula Rego, Tate Gallery Publications
1998
Colin Wiggins, Paula Rego, Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume I, pp 1155 – 1159, edited by Delia Gaze, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London
Frances Borzello, Seeing Ourselves - Women's self-portraits, Thames & Hudson, London,
pp 26, 177, 214
Alexandre Melo, Artes Plàsticas em Portugal, Dos Anos 70 aos nossos Dias, Difel, Portugal, pp 28–31 & pp 104 – 107
Elizabeth Cayzer, Changing Perceptions - Milestones in Twentieth-Century British Portraiture, The Alpha Press, Brighton, pp. 87 – 91
Marco Livingstone, Paula Rego - Grooming, in Art: The Critics' Choice, Aurum Press, London
Elizabeth Drury, Self Portraits of the World’s Greatest Painters, Parkgate Books, 1999,
Page 306
1999
Ruth Rosengarten, Getting Away with Murder – Paula Rego and the crime of Father Amaro, Delos Press, Birmingham
Ruth Rosengarten, Paula Rego e O Crime do Padre Amaro, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon
2000
Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Art of Success, Portraits by Snowdon, Vogue, May
Chris Dunn, People Looking at Art, Hodder & Stoughton, London
Fiona Bradley, editor, Victor Willing, August Publishers
2002
Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego, Tate Publishing
2003
Neil MacGregor, The Daily Telegraph Britain’s Paintings, Cassell Illustrated, 2003, Page 57
Dr. Maria Manuel Lisboa, Paula Rego’s Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Hampshire
Stephen Stuart-Smith with introduction by Marina Warner, Paula Rego – Jane Eyre, Enitharmon Editions, London
T.G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work, Thames & Hudson, London
2004
Robert Hughes, That’s showbusiness – The New Shock of the New, The Guardian, 30 June
Ruth Rosengarten, Compreender Paula Rego – 25 Perspectivas, Publico Serralves
Marina Warner interview with the artist, BBC Radio 3,
Jake Auerbach, The Artist's Eye, BBC2,
1992
Margaret Walters Interview for 'Meridian', BBC World Service February
John McEwen: lecture at the National Gallery, London, 11 February
Melvyn Bragg film on the artist, The South Bank Show, London Weekend Television, 23 February
1994
Sue Aaron, The Art: The Art of Living Things, BBC Schools Programme, 8 February &
20 October
Reiner Moritz, Masterworks, German TV, Munich and RTP Portugal
Elizabeth Levy, Little Angels, Little Devils, Wall to Wall Television Ltd. for Channel 4,
10 May
Sue Aron, Art Show: The Art Show, BBC Schools Programme, Summer and November
Steve Grant, 'The Late Show', BBC2, 17 November
1996
Tim Marlow, Kaleidescope, BBC Radio 4, 23 February
1997
Glyn Hughes Interview, 'Symposiart' Series, September
Sue Lawley, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 7 December
1998
Paula Rego in conversation with Jane Haynes, Metamorphosis in the Creative Process,
Harvest Symposium, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 24 October
2000
Tim Marlow in conversation with Paula Rego, Through the Artist’s Eyes,
The Tate Gallery, 9 June
Randall Wright, Director, BBC1 Omnibus, Shock of the Old, 11 June
Jenni Murray, BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour, 16 June
2001
John Tusa Interview, BBC Radio 3, 2 June
ITN Factual for Artsworld , Interview by Fiona Bradley, Produced by Dick Bower,
The Passion of Paula Rego, 15 July
2002
Cathy Courtney, National Life Story Collection, National Sound Archive, British Library
2003
Joan Bakewell, BBC4, Paula Rego,28 January
Francine Stock, Front Row Interview with Paula Rego, BBC Radio 4, 8 October
Paul Allen, Night Waves Interview with Paula Rego, BBC Radio 4, 17 October
Jenni Murray, Woman's Hour, Paula Rego interview, Radio 4, 22 October.
Paula Rego in conversation with Dr. Maria Lisboa, Heffers, Cambridge, 30 October
2004
Robert Hughes, The New Shock of the New, BBC2, 3 July
Jenni Murray, Woman’s Hour, Paula Rego interview, Radio 4, 21 October
Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3, 23 November
BBC The Culture Show, December
1998
Colin Wiggins, Paula Rego, Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume I, pp 1155 – 1159, edited by Delia Gaze, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London
Frances Borzello, Seeing Ourselves - Women's self-portraits, Thames & Hudson, London,
pp 26, 177, 214
Alexandre Melo, Artes Plàsticas em Portugal, Dos Anos 70 aos nossos Dias, Difel, Portugal, pp 28–31 & pp 104 – 107
Elizabeth Cayzer, Changing Perceptions - Milestones in Twentieth-Century British Portraiture, The Alpha Press, Brighton, pp. 87 – 91
Marco Livingstone, Paula Rego - Grooming, in Art: The Critics' Choice, Aurum Press, London
Elizabeth Drury, Self Portraits of the World’s Greatest Painters, Parkgate Books, 1999,
Page 306
1999
Ruth Rosengarten, Getting Away with Murder – Paula Rego and the crime of Father Amaro, Delos Press, Birmingham
Ruth Rosengarten, Paula Rego e O Crime do Padre Amaro, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon
2000
Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Art of Success, Portraits by Snowdon, Vogue, May
Chris Dunn, People Looking at Art, Hodder & Stoughton, London
Fiona Bradley, editor, Victor Willing, August Publishers
2002
Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego, Tate Publishing
2003
Neil MacGregor, The Daily Telegraph Britain’s Paintings, Cassell Illustrated, 2003, Page 57
Dr. Maria Manuel Lisboa, Paula Rego’s Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Hampshire
Stephen Stuart-Smith with introduction by Marina Warner, Paula Rego – Jane Eyre, Enitharmon Editions, London
T.G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work, Thames & Hudson, London
2004
Robert Hughes, That’s showbusiness – The New Shock of the New, The Guardian, 30 June
Ruth Rosengarten, Compreender Paula Rego – 25 Perspectivas, Publico Serralves
2005
Royal Mail commission of a set of Stamps, 24 February
Arts Council, London
Berardo Collection, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal
British Council, London
British Government Collection, on loan to the British Embassy, Lisbon
British Museum, London
Bristol City Art Gallery
Chapel of the Palacio de Belém, Lisbon
Frissiras Museum, Athens
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Gallery, London
National Portrait Gallery, London
New Hall, Cambridge
Portuguese Embassy, London
Rugby Museum and Art Gallery
Saatchi Gallery, London
Tate Gallery, London
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Yale Center for British Art
Appointed the First National Gallery Associate Artist
1992
Honorary Master of Art, Winchester School of Art, 12 June
1999
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 24 June
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 8 July
2000
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Rhode Island School of Design, USA, 3 June
2002
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, The London Institute, 23 May
2005
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Oxford University, June
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Roehampton University, July
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
although she is a naturalised British citizen.
Biography
Rego was born in the Portuguese capital LisbonLisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, the daughter of an electrical engineer who worked for the Marconi Company
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
. Although this gave her a comfortable middle class home, the family was divided in 1936 when her father was posted to work in England. Accompanied by Rego's mother, they left Rego behind in Portugal in the care of her grandmother until 1939. Her grandmother was to become a significant figure in Rego's life as she learnt many of the traditional folktales that would one day make their way into her art work from her grandmother and the family maid.
Rego's family were keen Anglophiles, and Rego was sent to the only English language school in Portugal at the time, Saint Julian's School
Saint Julian's School
St. Julian's is a private school in Carcavelos, Portugal. It was opened on November 25, 1932, on the site of an 18th century palace, built by José Francisco da Cruz, Treasurer to King D. José I. Several national and international famous figures have their children studying at St. Julian's...
in Carcavelos
Carcavelos
Carcavelos is a parish in the Portuguese municipality of Cascais, about 12 km west of Lisbon. The village used to be known for the Carcavelos wine, but since the wine production is nowadays reduced, Carcavelos is better known among surfers because of the good surfing condition of the...
from 1945 to 1951. Although nominally a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
and living in a devoutly Catholic country, St Julian's School was Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
and this combined with the hostility of Rego's father for the Catholic Church to create a distance between her and full blooded Catholic belief. Rego has described herself as having become a 'sort of Catholic', but equally she possessed as a child a sense of Catholic guilt
Catholic guilt
Catholic guilt is a term used to identify the supposed excess guilt felt by Catholics and lapsed Catholics. It is a concept that many non-Catholics have, partly based on a strict definition of sacraments by Martin Luther that diminished the role of Confession in many Protestant Churches and on the...
and a very real belief that the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
is real.
In 1951 Rego was sent to England to attend a finishing school called The Grove School, in Sevenoaks, Kent. Unhappy here, Rego attempted in 1952 to start studies in art at the Chelsea School of Art in London, but this was thwarted by her legal guardian in Britain, David Phillips, who feared her parents might not approve of their daughter mixing with art students. Returning to Portugal for the holidays that summer Rego discovered quite the opposite was true, and so she applied to study art in London again, this time at the Slade School of Fine Art
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
, which she attended from 1952 to 1956.
At the Slade Rego met her future husband, Victor Willing
Victor Willing
Victor Arthur James Willing was a British painter-Life and work:Victor Willing was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the only son of George Willing, professional soldier, and his wife Irene Cynthia Tomkins. The first four years of his life were spent there and, briefly, in Malta...
, also a student at the Slade, although he was already married at the time. Rego and Willing left London to live in Portugal with Rego's parents in 1957, and they were able to marry in 1959 following Willing's divorce. Three years later Rego's father bought the couple a house in London, at Albert Street in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
and Rego's time was spent divided between Britain and Portugal. In 1966 Rego's father died, and the family electrical business was taken over, unwillingly, by Rego's husband, although he had himself been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
. The company failed in 1974 during the Portuguese Revolution that overthrew the country's right wing Estado Novo (Portugal)
Estado Novo
There have been two regimes known as Estado Novo :*Estado Novo , the period from 1937 to 1945, under the leadership of Getúlio Vargas...
dictatorship, with the production works taken over by the revolutionary forces, even though Rego's family had been supporters of the political left. As a result Rego, Willing and their children moved permanently to London and spent most of their time there until Willing's death in 1988.
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 whilst she was still a student, Rego's artistic career effectively began in the early 1962 when she began showing with The London Group, a long established artists' organisation which included David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
and Frank Auerbach
Frank Auerbach
Frank Helmut Auerbach is a painter born in Germany although he has been a naturalised British citizen since 1947.-Biography:Auerbach was born in Berlin, the son of Max Auerbach, a patent lawyer, and Charlotte Nora Burchardt, who had trained as an artist...
among its members. In 1965 she was selected by Roland Penrose
Roland Penrose
Sir Roland Algernon Penrose CBE was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom.- Biography :...
to take part in a group show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
(ICA) in London, and 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
São Paulo Art Biennial
The São Paulo Art Biennial was founded in 1951 and has been held every two years since. It is the second oldest art biennial in the world after the Venice Biennial , which serves as its role model....
. Between 1971 and 1978 she was to have seven solo shows in Portugal, in Lisbon and Oporto, and then a series of solo exhibitions in Britain, including at the AIR Gallery in London in 1981, the Arnolfini
Arnolfini
The Arnolfini is an arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, live art, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a specialist art bookshop and a café bar. Educational activities are undertaken...
in Bristol in 1983, and the Edward Totah Gallery, London in 1984, 1985 and 1987. She also held solo shows in Amsterdam at Espace in 1983, and the Art Place in New York in 1985.
In 1988 Rego was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private foundation of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education, and science...
in Lisbon and the Serpentine Gallery
Serpentine Gallery
The Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
in London. This led on to Rego being invited to become the first 'Associate Artist' at the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...
, London in 1990, in what was the first of a series of artist-in-residence schemes organised by the gallery. From this emerged two sets of work. The first was a series of paintings and prints on the theme of nursery rhymes, which was toured around Britain and elsewhere by the Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...
and British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
from 1991 to 1996. The second was a series of large scale paintings inspired by the paintings of Carlo Crivelli
Carlo Crivelli
Carlo Crivelli was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione and Mantegna...
in the National Gallery, known as 'Crivelli’s Garden' which are now housed in the main restaurant at the gallery.
Rego was signed by the London based gallery Marlborough Fine Art in 1987, and has shown there on numerous occasions, including a series of works based on Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
in 1992, the celebrated 'Dog Woman' series in 1994, and 'Oratorio', a triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
format altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
, in 2010 created for the exhibition 'Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego at the Foundling Museum', held at the Foundling Museum
Foundling Museum
The Foundling Museum in London tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, Britain's first home for abandoned children. The museum houses the nationally important Foundling Hospital Art Collection as well as the Gerald Coke Handel Collection, the world's greatest privately amassed collection of...
, London.
Other exhibitions include a retrospective at Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporation...
in 1997, Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London. England's first purpose-built public art gallery, it was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane and opened to the public in 1817. Soane arranged the exhibition spaces as a series of interlinked rooms illuminated naturally...
in 1998, Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
in 2005 and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 2007. A major retrospective was also held of her work at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid in 2007, which travelled to the Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, the following year.
In 2008 Rego showed at Marlborough Chelsea in New York, and staged a retrospective of her graphic works at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Nimes. As well as showing at Marlborough Fine Art in London in 2010, the art critic Marco Livingstone organised a retrospective of her work at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey, Mexico, which was later shown at the Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Rego has 43 works in the collection of the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
, 10 works in the collection of the Arts Council of England, 46 works in the Tate Gallery, London, and works in the British Government Art Collection, the British Museum, and the municipal collections of the cities of Bristol, Leicester, Rugby and Leeds in the United Kingdom, and the collections of the Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal, the Chapel of the Palacio de Belém, Portugal, the Frissiras Museum, Greece, and the Yale Center for British Art, in the USA.
She has received honorary doctorates from Winchester School of Art
Winchester School of Art
Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England.- Overview :...
, the University of East Anglia
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia is a public research university based in Norwich, United Kingdom. It was established in 1963, and is a founder-member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities.-History:...
, Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
and the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, and in 2004 was awarded the Grã Cruz da Ordem de Sant'Iago da Espada by the President of Portugal. In 2009 a museum dedicated to Rego's work was opened in the Portuguese town of Cascais
Cascais
Cascais is a coastal town in Cascais Municipality in Portugal, 30 kilometres west of Lisbon, with about 35,000 residents. It is a cosmopolitan suburb of the Portuguese capital and one of the richest municipalities in Portugal. The former fishing village gained fame as a resort for Portugal's royal...
, and several key exhibitions of her work have since been staged here.
In 2010 she was made a Dame of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2010 and in the same year won the MAPFRE Foundation Drawing Prize in Madrid. In 2012 she will have retrospective exhibition of her work will be staged at the new Gulbenkian Museum in Paris
Rego is represented by Marlborough Fine Art, London.
Style and Influences
Rego is a prolific painter and printmaker, and in earlier years was also a producer of collageCollage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
work. Her most well known depictions of folk tales and images of young girls, made largely since 1990, seem bring together the methods of painting and printmaking with an emphasis on strong and clearly drawn forms, in contrast to Rego's earlier more lose style paintings.
Yet in her earliest works, such as Always at Your Excellency's Service, painted in 1961, Rego was strongly influenced by Surrealism, particularly the work of Juan Miro. This manifested itself not only in the type of imagery that appeared in these works but in the method Rego employed which was based on the Surrealist idea of automatic drawing, in which the artist attempts to disengage the conscious mind from the making process to allow the unconscious mind to direct the image making. At times these paintings almost verged on abstraction, but as proven by Salazar Vomiting the Homeland, painted in 1960, even when her work veered toward abstraction a strong narrative element remained in place, with Salazar being the right-wing dictator of Portugal in power at the time.
There are two principal causes for Rego adopting a semi-abstract style in the 1960s. The first is the simple dominance of abstraction in avant garde artistic circles at the time, which set figurative art on the defensive. But Rego was also reacting against her training at the Slade School, where a very strong emphasis had been placed on anatomical figure drawing. Under the encouragement of her fellow student and later husband Victor Willing, Rego kept a 'secret sketchbook', alongside her official school sketchbooks, whilst at the Slade, in which she made free form drawings of a type that would have been frowned upon by her tutors. This apparent dislike of crisp drawing techniques in the 1960s manifested itself not only in the style of works such as Faust and the Red Monkey series of the 1980s, which resemble expressionistic comic book drawing, but in her acknowledged influences at the time, which included Jean Dubuffet
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making.-Life and work:Dubuffet was...
and Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....
.
A notable change of style emerged in 1990 following Rego's appointment to be the first 'Associate Artist' of the National Gallery, London, which was effectively an artist-in-residence scheme. Her brief was to ' work in whatever way she wished around works in the collection.' As the National Gallery is overwhelmingly an Old Master
Old Master
"Old Master" is a term for a European painter of skill who worked before about 1800, or a painting by such an artist. An "old master print" is an original print made by an artist in the same period...
collection Rego seems to have been pulled back towards a much clearer, or tigher, linear style that is reminiscent of the highly wrought drawing technique she would have been taught at the Slade. The result of this was a series of works which came to characterise the popular perception of Rego's style, comprising strong clear drawing, with depictions of equally strong women in sometimes disturbing situations. Works like Crivelli's Garden have clear links to the paintings by Carlo Crivelli
Carlo Crivelli
Carlo Crivelli was an Italian Renaissance painter of conservative Late Gothic decorative sensibility, who spent his early years in the Veneto, where he absorbed influences from the Vivarini, Squarcione and Mantegna...
in the National Gallery, but other works made at the time, like Joseph's Dream and The Fitting, also draw spatially and in their subject matter from Old Master works by artists such as Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
.
Having given up collage in the late 1970s, Rego began using pastels as a medium in the early 1990s, and continues to use this medium to this day, almost to the exclusion of oil paint. Amongst the most notable works made in pastel are those of her Dog Women series, in which women are shown sitting, squatting, scratching and generally behaving as if they are dogs. This antithesis of what is considered feminine behaviour, and many other works in which there appears to be either the threat of female violence or its actual manifestation, has associated Rego with feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, and she has acknowledged reading Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
's The Second Sex, a key feminist text, at a young age and this making a deep impression on her. Her work also chimed with the interest of feminist writers on art such as Griselda Pollock
Griselda Pollock
Griselda Pollock is a prominent art historian and cultural analyst, and a world-renowned scholar of international, post-colonial feminist studies in the visual arts. She is best known for her theoretical and methodological innovation, combined with deeply engaged readings of historical and...
in Freudian criticism in the 1990s, 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 Freudian sexual undertones. However Rego has been known to slap down critics who read too much sexual connotation into her work.
Another explanation for Rego's depiction of women as unfeminine, animalistic or brutal beings is that this reflects the physical reality of a woman as a human being in the physical world, and not idealised types in the minds of men.
Solo Exhibitions
2004Paula Rego, Serralves Museum, Oporto,
Paula Rego in Focus, Tate Britain,
2003-2004
Paula Rego, Corner 2004, Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
2003
Paula Rego – Pendle Witches, Hebden Bridge Arts Festival, Linden Mill, Hebden Bridge, N. Yorkshire, 18 June – 20 July
Jane Eyre and Other Stories, Marlborough Fine Art, London,
15 October –
22 November Paula Rego Jane Eyre, Galeria 111, Brito, Portugal, 8 November
2002
Paula Rego - Jane Eyre; Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York, 8 January – 2 February
2001
Paula Rego, Celestina’s House, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal,
11 June – 7 October, Travelling to the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven,
18 April – 30 June 2002, Together with Paula Rego - Jane Eyre
Paula Rego- Nursery Rhymes e Outras Gravuras, Parque das Nacoes, Lisbon
So desenhos Paula Rego, Fundacao Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, Lisbon, 11 July – 30 September
2000
Paula Rego, Pendle Witches, Children’s Crusade and Drawings, Abbot Hall
ArtGallery, Kendal, 10 February – 12 March
1999
Paula Rego - The Children's Crusade - a suite of 12 etchings, Marlborough Graphics, London, 26 January - 27 February
Paula Rego - Recent Work, Marlborough Galeria SA, Madrid, 13 February -
27 March
Paula Rego O Crime do Padre Amaro, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian , Lisbon, 18 May - 29 August
Open Secrets – Drawings and Etchings by Paula Rego, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, USA, 18 September – 23 October; Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, 16 November – 20 December, curated by Memory Holloway; text by Memory Holloway and Ruth Rosengarten
Children’s Crusade, Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop, 28 November – 24 December
Nursery Rhymes, White Gallery, Brighton, 21 November 1999 – 21 Jan 2000
1998
Paula Rego: Pendle Witches and Peter Pan, Midland Art Centre, 25 April –
21 May
Paula Rego – The Sins of Father Amaro, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 17 June -19 July
Paula Rego - Pra Lá et Pra Cá, Galerie III, Lisbon
Paula Rego – Pendle Witches, Harris Museum, 24 January – 15 March
Pendle Witches, Marlborough Galeria Madrid, 25 September – 18 October
1997
Paula Rego Retrospective exhibition, Tate Gallery Liverpool, 8 February -
13 April. Travelling to Fundação das Descobertas, Centro Cultural de Belém,
Lisbon, 15 May - 17 August, Lisbon
Nursery Rhymes, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus, 7–12 October. Travelling to Town Hall, Larnaca, Cyprus, 26–29 November.
Ainscough Gallery, 6 February – Mid March. Nodrum
1996
Nursery Rhymes, University Gallery, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
1995
Nursery Rhymes, Ty Llen, Cardiff Literature Festival (May - July)
Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan, Annandale Galleries,
Sydney Australia; Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
Keel university.
1994
Paula Rego, Dog Women, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria BC, Canada
1993
Nursery Rhymes, Cheltenham Literary Festival
1992-1993
Paula Rego Peter Pan & Other Stories, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Paula Rego Peter Pan, A Suite of 15 etchings and aquatints, Marlborough
Graphics, London
1991-1992
Tales from the National Gallery, Travelling Exhibition: Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery; Middlesbrough Art Gallery
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, or mima, is a contemporary art gallery based in the centre of Middlesbrough, England. The gallery was formally launched on Sunday 27 January 2007...
; Whitworth Art Gallery,
Manchester; Cooper Art Gallery, Barnsley; the National Gallery, London;
The Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle; The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
1991-1996
Nursery Rhymes, South Bank Centre, British Council, and Marlborough Graphics Travelling exhibition in the U.K., including: Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset; Rufford Craft Centre, Nottinghamshire; Hove Museum and Art Gallery; Vicarage Gallery, North Shields, Graphics Studio, Dublin.
1990-1991
Nursery Rhymes, British Council Travelling Exhibition in Europe
1990
Nursery Rhymes, Galeria III, Lisbon
Nursery Rhymes, Galeria Zen, Oporto
1989
Paula Rego ‑ Nursery Rhymes, Marlborough Graphics Gallery, London
Galeria III, ARCO, MadridGaleria III, Lisbon
1988
Retrospective Exhibition, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Casa de Serralves, Oporto; the Serpentine Gallery, London
1987
Selected work 1981‑1986, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and UK tour Edward Totah Gallery, London
1985
The Art Palace, New York
Edward Totah Gallery, London
1984
South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell, Midland Group, Nottingham
Edward Totah Gallery, London
1983
Arnolfini, Bristol,
Galerie Espace, Amsterdam
1982
Galeria III, Lisbon, Edward Totah Gallery, London
1981
AIR Gallery, London
1978
Galeria III, Lisbon
1977
Módulo Centro Difusor da Arte, Oporto
1975
Módulo Centro Difusor da Arte, Lisbon
1974
Galeria da Emenda, Lisbon
1972
Galeria Alvarez, Oporto
1971
Galeria São Mamede, Lisbon
1965
SNBA, Lisbon
Group Exhibitions
2005The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Pastel Society, Pall Mall, 2–13 March
Only Make Believe, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, 23 March – 5 June
O Nome Que No Peito Escrito Tinhas, Alcobaça Monastery, Portugal,
Artists include: Paula Rego, Julião Sarmento, Vasco Araújo, João Pedro Vale and Adriana Molder. Exhibition Curated by Alexandre Melo, August
Guys’n’Dolls. Art, Science, Fashion and Relationships, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, 23 April – 12 June
2004
Five Painters from Portuguese Modernity (1911–1965), Amadeo de Souza-Cardosa, Almada Negreiros, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Joaquin Rodrigo & Paula Rego, La Pedrera, Fundaçao Caixa de Catalan, Barcelona, 17 February - 16 May. Catalogue introductions by Pedro Lapa and Jaume Vidal Oliveras.
BODY. From Munch to Melgaard, Kistefos Museum, Norway, 12 May – 20 September
2003
The Enduring Image, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal
Catalogue introduction by Hannah Neale
La Fête, Le Bellevue, Biarritz, Museo Valenciano de la
Illustración y la Modernidad, Valencia, Exhibition
Curated by Solange Auzias de Turenne,
Escuela de Londres, Marlborough Madrid, Centro Cultural Caja de Granada, Puerta Real, Granada, Catalogue introduction by Fernando Huici.
2002
Belas Artes Centenary Exhibition, Lisbon
London International Small Print Biennale, Morley Gallery The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, March Coming of Age – Works from the Tate Collection, The New Art Gallery, Walsall,
Metamorphing, The Science Museum, London,
Heavenly Creatures – Paula Rego and Ron Mueck, The British School at Rome,
2000-2001
British Art Show 5, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre Travelling exhibition
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Southampton City Art Gallery, National Museum of Wales,
Cardiff, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery,
The School of London and their Friends – The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase,
1998
Recollection Kunstverein, Graz
Georg Herold / Albert Oehlen Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Selbstportraits Galerie Barbel Grasslin, Frankfurt
Fast Forward Archives Kunstverein, Hamburg
1997
Display Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen
1996
On Paper II Schmidt Contemporary Art, St Louis
Peinture-Peinture Galerie Samia Saouma, Paris
Provins – Legende Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde
1995
Open Studio, The Florence Trust, London
Summer exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Peep, Brighton Museum in collaboration with the Institute of International
Visual Art
New Acquisitions, National Portrait Gallery, London
1994-95
An American Passion - the Summer Collection of Contemporary British Painting,
The McLellan Galleries, Glasgow; The Royal College of Art, London
1994
Unbound - Possibilities in Painting, Hayward Gallery, London
Waves of Influence (Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan graphics), Snug Harbour Cultural Center, Statton Island, New York
Here and Now, Serpentine Gallery, London
John Murphy, Avis Newman, Paula Rego, The Saatchi Gallery, London
1993-1994
Writing on the Wall - Women Writers on Women Artists, Tate Gallery, London,
October 1993 - April 1994; travelling to the Norwich Castle Museum and the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1992-1993
Innocence and Experience, Manchester City Art Galleries and South Bank Centre
Travelling Exhibition: Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Castle Museum, Nottingham; Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
Life into Paint: British Figurative Painting of the 20th Century, Israel Museum,
Jerusalem
1992
Myth, Dream and Fable, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham
1991-1992
From Bacon to Now ‑ The Outsider in British Figuration, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
The Primacy of Drawing - An Artist's View, South Bank Centre travelling
exhibition: Bristol Museum and Art Gallery; Stoke-on-Tent Art Gallery; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield
1991
Modern Painters ‑ A Memorial Exhibition for Peter Fuller, City Art Galleries, Manchester
Triptico, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent
1990-1991
British Art Now: A Subjective View, British Council Travelling Exhibition, Japan
The Great British Art Exhibition, Glasgow
Eleventh International Print Biennale, Bradford
1990
Now for the Future, Hayward Gallery, London; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1989-1990
Picturing People: Figurative Art in Britain 1945 - 1989, British Council Travelling Exhibition: National Gallery, Kuala Lumpur; Hong Kong Museum of Art; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
1989
Ines de Castro, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
1988
Works on Paper by contemporary artists, Marlborough Fine Art, London
35 Pinturas de Colecçao do Banco Portugues do Atlantico, Casa de Serralves, Oporto
Cries and Whispers, British Council Travelling exhibition, Australia
Narrative paintings, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Objects and Image, Aspects of British Art in the 1980s, Stoke-on-Trent Art Gallery
1987
Art Contemporáneo Portugués, Madrid
Current Affairs‑British Painting and Sculpture in the 1980s, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia
70 ‑ 80: Arte Portuguesa, Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro
Alberto da Lacerdo ‑ O Mundo de un poeta, Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisbon
30 Obras de Arte Uniao de Bancos Portugeses, Case de Serralves, Oporto
Feira do Circo, Forum Picoas, Lisbon
Exposição Amadeo Souza‑Cardoso, Casa de Serralves, Oporto
Obras de uma Colecçao Particular, Casa de Serralves, Oporto
1986
A primeira década , Módulo‑Centro Difusor da Arte, Lisbon
Le XXéme au Portugal, Centre Albert Borchette, Brussels
Teira Exposiçao de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon.
AICA‑PHILAE, SNBA, Lisbon
Love Sacred and Profane, Plymouth
The Human Zoo, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham
Contemporary British and Malaysian Art, National Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Nove‑Nine Portuguese Painters, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
1985
Passion and Power, La Mama and Gracie Mansion, New York
1985
The British Art Show, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Diálogo sobre arte contemporanea, Centro de Arte Moderna; Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Bienale de Paris
Animals, Edward Totah Gallery, London
Exposição Diálogo, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool
Bienal de São Paulo (representing Britain)
1984
1984 ‑ an exhibition, Camden Arts Centre, London
Os Novos Primitivos, Cooperative Arvore, Oporto
1983
Third Biennale of Graphic Arts, Baden Baden
Eight in the Eighties, New York
Marathon 83, New York
1982
Three Women, Edward Totah Gallery, London
Inner Worlds, Midland Group, Nottingham
Pintura portuguesa contemporanea, Museu Luis de Camões, Macau
Hayward Annual, London
John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool
1981
Artists in Camden, Camden Arts Centre, London
Ante‑visão do Centro de Arte Moderna, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, LisbonThe Subjective Eye, Midland Group, Nottingham
1979
Femina, UNESCO, Paris
1978
Portuguese Art since 1910, Royal Academy of Art, London
Exposição individual, Galeria III, Lisbon
1977
Artistas Portugueses en Madrid ‑ Pintura e Escultura Contemporaneas, Madrid
1976
Arte Portugués Contemporanea, Galerie Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome
Art Portugais Contemporain, Musée d'Art Contemporain de la Ville de Paris
Exposiçao de Arte Moderna Portuguesa, SNBA, Lisbon
1975
XIII Bienal de São Paulo
Figuraçao Hoje, Lisbon
1974
Expo AICA, SNBA
1973
Pintura portuguesa de hoje‑abstractos e Neo‑figurativos, Lisbon, Salamanca, Barcelona
26 Artistas de Hoje, Lisbon
Exposição de Artistas Modernas Portugueses, Galleria Quadrum, Lisbon
1970
Novos Sintomas na pintura portuguesa , Galeria Judite Dacruz, Lisbon
1969
Represented Portugal in the XI Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
Gravure Portugaise Contemporaine, Paris
1967
Bienal de Tokyo
Novas Iconologias, Lisbon
Art Portugais ‑ Peinture et sculpture de Naturalisme à nos jours, Brussels, Paris, Madrid
1965
Six Artists, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
1961
Segunda Exposição de Artes Plásticas, Fundação Calouste Goulbenkian, Lisbon
1955
Young Contemporaries, London
Catalogues Published
1961Il Exposiçao de Artes Plasticas, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
Paula Rego, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
1965
Alberto de Lacerda: 'Fragmentos de um poema intitulado Paula Rego', Paula Rego, SNBA, LisbonVictor Willing: Six Artists, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 1965
1967
Art Portugais - Peinture et Sculpture de Naturalisme à nos jours, Brussels
1971
Paula Rego Expoé, Galeria São Mameda, Lisbon
1972
Esposiçao Colectiva, Galeria Sâo Mamede, Lisbon
1974
Salette Taveres: 'A Estrutura Semântica na obra de Paula Rego', Expo AICA, SNBA
1978
Helmut Wohl: Portugese Art since 1910, Royal Academy of Art, London
1983
Victor Willing: Paula Rego: Paintings 1982 - 3 Arnolfini, Bristol; Galerie Espace, Amsterdam
1984
Deanna Petherbridge: 'Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1984' Camden Arts Centre, London
1985
Lynne Cooke: Paula Rego: Paintings 1984 - 5 Edward Totah
Gallery, London, text by Lynne Cooke
Alexander Moffat: 'Retrieving the Image', The British Art Show, Arts Council of
Great Britain
1986
Alistair Hicks: Paula Rego: Selected Work 1981 - 1986,
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Nine Portuguese Painters, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
1987
70 - 80 Arte Portuguesa , Brazil, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
Lewis Biggs and David Elliott, Current Affairs, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Feira do Circo, Forum Picoas, Lisbon
Paula Rego: Girl and Dog, Edward Totah Gallery, London,
1988
Works on paper by contemporary artists, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Victor Willing: Inevitable Prohibitions; Ruth Rosengarten, La Règle du Jeu and John McEwen In Conversation with Paula Rego, Bernardo Pinto de Almeida Paula no Pais das Maravilhas, Paula Rego, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and Serpentine Gallery, LondonLewis Biggs: A context for the exhibitions, Cries and Whispers, British Council
1989
Marina Warner Essay in Nursery Rhymes, Marlborough Graphics Gallery, London
1990
John McEwen, Paula Rego The Nursery Rhymes, South Bank Centre Touring Exhibition
1991
Keith Patrick, Maité Lores: From Bacon to Now ‑ The Outsider in British Figuration, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
Germaine Greer and Colin Wiggins Essays for Tales from the National Gallery, National Gallery, London
Deanna Petherbridge: The Primacy of Drawing - An Artist's View, South Bank
Centre travelling exhibition
1993
Peter Pan & Other Stories, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Peter Pan - A Suite of 15 etchings and aquatints, Marlborough Graphics London
Judith Collins & Elspeth Linder editors: Writing on the Wall - Women Writers on
Women Artists, Tate Gallery, published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London
1994
Adrian Searle, Unbound - Possibilities in Painting, Hayward Gallery, London
Paula Rego: Dog Women, Marlborough Fine Art, London
1995
An American Passion - The Susan Kasen Summer and Robert D. Summer Collection of Contemporary British Paintings, catalogue edited by Patricia Saligmen
1996
Spellbound - Art and Film, Hayward Gallery, London, text by Marcia Pointon
Paula Rego: The Dancing Ostriches from Disney's Fantasia, Marlborough Fine Art, London and Saatchi Collection, London. Introduction by Sarah Kent, essay
by John McEwen
Marcia Pointon, Familiarity, Fear and the Boundaries of the Body in Paula Rego's Dialogue with Disney, Paula Rego - New Work, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York
1994-1995
An American Passion - The Susan Kasen Summer and Robert D. Summer Collection of Contemporary British Paintings, catalogue edited by Patricia Saligmen
1996
Spellbound - Art and Film, Hayward Gallery, London, text by Marcia Pointon
Paula Rego: The Dancing Ostriches from Disney's Fantasia, Marlborough Fine Art, London and Saatchi Collection, London. Introduction by Sarah Kent, essay
by John McEwen
Marcia Pointon, Familiarity, Fear and the Boundaries of the Body in Paula Rego's Dialogue with Disney, Paula Rego - New Work, Marlborough Gallery Inc., New York
1997
Nicholas Serota & Lewis Biggs, Preface; Fiona Bradley, Introduction: Automatic Narrative; Victor Willing, The Imagiconography of Paula Rego; Ruth Rosengarten, Home Truths: The Work of Paula Rego; Judith Collins, Paula Rego's Drawing. The Tate Gallery, Liverpool, Retrospective Exhibition:
Travelling to: Fundação das Descobertas, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon
1998
Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Paula Rego, Dulwich Picture Gallery
1998-99
Dina Vierny, Bertrand Lorquin, Michael Peppiatt, Jill Lloyd: The School of London - From Bacon to Bevan, Musée Maillol, Paris; Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela
1999
Peter Weiermair, Andreas Hapkemeyer, Figuration, Blickle Stiftung Bruchsal; Rupertinum Salzburg; Bolzano Museum
Roger Bevan Introduction, Portrait of a City - Seven Figurative Painters from London, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
2000
Timothy Hyman, Roger Malbert, Carnivalesque, Hayward Gallery Travelling Exhibition: Brighton Museum; Nottingham Castle Museum
Richard Morphet, Robert Rosenblum, Judith Bumpus, Keith Hartley,
Andrew Lambirth, Marco Livingstone, Christopher Riopelle: Encounters: New Art from Old, National Gallery, London
2001
Pippa Coles, Mathew Higgs, Jacqui Poncelet, British Art Show 5, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre Travelling exhibition: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Southampton City Art Gallery; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Patrick McCaughey , Richard Cork, Emily M. Weeks, The School of London and their Friends – The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, USA.
2001-2002
Paula Rego, Celestina’s House, Abbott Hall Art Gallery, Kendal & Yale Center for British Art. Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego – Recent Works; Edward King interview with Paula Rego
2002
Marina Warner, Metamorphing, The Science Museum, London.
Paula Rego- Jane Eyre, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
2004
Paula Rego, Serralves Museum, Oporto, 15 October 2004-23 January 2005.
João Fernandes, Introduction and The Stories by Paula Rego, between Painting and Drawing: Ruth Rosengarten: Possessed: Love and Authority in the work of Paula Rego; Marco Livingstone: All that is left behind. Serralves Museum, Oporto. Published in English and Portuguese
Christina Bagatavicius, Paula Rego in Focus, Tate Britain, October 2004-January 2005
Books Published
1974José Augusto França: Pintura portuguesa no século XX, Livraria Bertrand, Lisbon, 1974, 1986
1984
Rui Mário Gonçalves: Pintura e escultura em Portugal, 1940–1980, Lisbon, Instituto
de Cultura, Lisbon
1986
Alexandre Melo e Joao Pinharanda: Arte Contemporânea Portuguesa, Lisbon
Bernardo Pinto de Almeida: Breve introdução à pintura portuguesa no século XX, Edição do Autor, Oportof
1989
Nursery Rhymes, Thames and Hudson
1991
Hector Obalk: Paula Rego, Art Random, Kyoto Shoin International Co. Ltd., Kyoto,
Japan
1992
John McEwen: Paula Rego, Phaidon Press Ltd., London
1993
The Art Book, Phaidon Press Ltd, London
Peter Pan, Folio Society
1994
Marina Warner, Wonder Tales, Chatto & Windus, London
A Portfolio - Nine London Birds, published by the Byam Shaw School of Art, London,
introduction by John McEwen
1995
Diana Eccles, Barbara Putt, editors, British Council Collection Catalogue Volume II
1996
John McEwen, Paula Rego, Phaidon Press, London, updated edition in paperback
Blake Morrison, Pendle Witches, Enitharmon Press, London
John McEwen, Dancing Ostriches, Saatchi Publications
1997
Paula Rego, Tate Gallery Publications
1998
Colin Wiggins, Paula Rego, Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume I, pp 1155 – 1159, edited by Delia Gaze, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London
Frances Borzello, Seeing Ourselves - Women's self-portraits, Thames & Hudson, London,
pp 26, 177, 214
Alexandre Melo, Artes Plàsticas em Portugal, Dos Anos 70 aos nossos Dias, Difel, Portugal, pp 28–31 & pp 104 – 107
Elizabeth Cayzer, Changing Perceptions - Milestones in Twentieth-Century British Portraiture, The Alpha Press, Brighton, pp. 87 – 91
Marco Livingstone, Paula Rego - Grooming, in Art: The Critics' Choice, Aurum Press, London
Elizabeth Drury, Self Portraits of the World’s Greatest Painters, Parkgate Books, 1999,
Page 306
1999
Ruth Rosengarten, Getting Away with Murder – Paula Rego and the crime of Father Amaro, Delos Press, Birmingham
Ruth Rosengarten, Paula Rego e O Crime do Padre Amaro, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon
2000
Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Art of Success, Portraits by Snowdon, Vogue, May
Chris Dunn, People Looking at Art, Hodder & Stoughton, London
Fiona Bradley, editor, Victor Willing, August Publishers
2002
Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego, Tate Publishing
2003
Neil MacGregor, The Daily Telegraph Britain’s Paintings, Cassell Illustrated, 2003, Page 57
Dr. Maria Manuel Lisboa, Paula Rego’s Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Hampshire
Stephen Stuart-Smith with introduction by Marina Warner, Paula Rego – Jane Eyre, Enitharmon Editions, London
T.G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work, Thames & Hudson, London
2004
Robert Hughes, That’s showbusiness – The New Shock of the New, The Guardian, 30 June
Ruth Rosengarten, Compreender Paula Rego – 25 Perspectivas, Publico Serralves
Television and Radio Interviews
1988Marina Warner interview with the artist, BBC Radio 3,
Jake Auerbach, The Artist's Eye, BBC2,
1992
Margaret Walters Interview for 'Meridian', BBC World Service February
John McEwen: lecture at the National Gallery, London, 11 February
Melvyn Bragg film on the artist, The South Bank Show, London Weekend Television, 23 February
1994
Sue Aaron, The Art: The Art of Living Things, BBC Schools Programme, 8 February &
20 October
Reiner Moritz, Masterworks, German TV, Munich and RTP Portugal
Elizabeth Levy, Little Angels, Little Devils, Wall to Wall Television Ltd. for Channel 4,
10 May
Sue Aron, Art Show: The Art Show, BBC Schools Programme, Summer and November
Steve Grant, 'The Late Show', BBC2, 17 November
1996
Tim Marlow, Kaleidescope, BBC Radio 4, 23 February
1997
Glyn Hughes Interview, 'Symposiart' Series, September
Sue Lawley, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 7 December
1998
Paula Rego in conversation with Jane Haynes, Metamorphosis in the Creative Process,
Harvest Symposium, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 24 October
2000
Tim Marlow in conversation with Paula Rego, Through the Artist’s Eyes,
The Tate Gallery, 9 June
Randall Wright, Director, BBC1 Omnibus, Shock of the Old, 11 June
Jenni Murray, BBC Radio 4, Woman’s Hour, 16 June
2001
John Tusa Interview, BBC Radio 3, 2 June
ITN Factual for Artsworld , Interview by Fiona Bradley, Produced by Dick Bower,
The Passion of Paula Rego, 15 July
2002
Cathy Courtney, National Life Story Collection, National Sound Archive, British Library
2003
Joan Bakewell, BBC4, Paula Rego,28 January
Francine Stock, Front Row Interview with Paula Rego, BBC Radio 4, 8 October
Paul Allen, Night Waves Interview with Paula Rego, BBC Radio 4, 17 October
Jenni Murray, Woman's Hour, Paula Rego interview, Radio 4, 22 October.
Paula Rego in conversation with Dr. Maria Lisboa, Heffers, Cambridge, 30 October
2004
Robert Hughes, The New Shock of the New, BBC2, 3 July
Jenni Murray, Woman’s Hour, Paula Rego interview, Radio 4, 21 October
Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3, 23 November
BBC The Culture Show, December
1998
Colin Wiggins, Paula Rego, Dictionary of Women Artists, Volume I, pp 1155 – 1159, edited by Delia Gaze, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, London
Frances Borzello, Seeing Ourselves - Women's self-portraits, Thames & Hudson, London,
pp 26, 177, 214
Alexandre Melo, Artes Plàsticas em Portugal, Dos Anos 70 aos nossos Dias, Difel, Portugal, pp 28–31 & pp 104 – 107
Elizabeth Cayzer, Changing Perceptions - Milestones in Twentieth-Century British Portraiture, The Alpha Press, Brighton, pp. 87 – 91
Marco Livingstone, Paula Rego - Grooming, in Art: The Critics' Choice, Aurum Press, London
Elizabeth Drury, Self Portraits of the World’s Greatest Painters, Parkgate Books, 1999,
Page 306
1999
Ruth Rosengarten, Getting Away with Murder – Paula Rego and the crime of Father Amaro, Delos Press, Birmingham
Ruth Rosengarten, Paula Rego e O Crime do Padre Amaro, Quetzal Editores, Lisbon
2000
Andrew Graham-Dixon, The Art of Success, Portraits by Snowdon, Vogue, May
Chris Dunn, People Looking at Art, Hodder & Stoughton, London
Fiona Bradley, editor, Victor Willing, August Publishers
2002
Fiona Bradley, Paula Rego, Tate Publishing
2003
Neil MacGregor, The Daily Telegraph Britain’s Paintings, Cassell Illustrated, 2003, Page 57
Dr. Maria Manuel Lisboa, Paula Rego’s Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Hampshire
Stephen Stuart-Smith with introduction by Marina Warner, Paula Rego – Jane Eyre, Enitharmon Editions, London
T.G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego: The Complete Graphic Work, Thames & Hudson, London
2004
Robert Hughes, That’s showbusiness – The New Shock of the New, The Guardian, 30 June
Ruth Rosengarten, Compreender Paula Rego – 25 Perspectivas, Publico Serralves
2005
Royal Mail commission of a set of Stamps, 24 February
Public Collections
Abbot Hall Art Gallery, KendalArts Council, London
Berardo Collection, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Portugal
British Council, London
British Government Collection, on loan to the British Embassy, Lisbon
British Museum, London
Bristol City Art Gallery
Chapel of the Palacio de Belém, Lisbon
Frissiras Museum, Athens
Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds
Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Gallery, London
National Portrait Gallery, London
New Hall, Cambridge
Portuguese Embassy, London
Rugby Museum and Art Gallery
Saatchi Gallery, London
Tate Gallery, London
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Yale Center for British Art
Honorary Titles and Degrees
1990Appointed the First National Gallery Associate Artist
1992
Honorary Master of Art, Winchester School of Art, 12 June
1999
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 24 June
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 8 July
2000
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Rhode Island School of Design, USA, 3 June
2002
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, The London Institute, 23 May
2005
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Oxford University, June
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Roehampton University, July
Further reading
- John McEwen, Paula Rego (Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1992)
- Tate Gallery, Paula Rego (London: Tate Publishing, 1997)
- Fiona Bradley Paula Rego, Tate Publishing, 2002
External links
- Marlborough Art Gallery, artists' page
- Tate: In the Studio: Paula Rego Printmaking with the artist at The Curwen Studio. 31 July 2008
- Art HERStory: Paula Rego