Paula Rego, one of the most imaginative, outspoken, and fearless artists of our time
Paula Rego’s imaginative, incandescent art explores injustice, rage, sensuality, power, and freedom, in both the personal and the political sphere, often against a strange, fantastical backdrop inspired by fairytales and folk stories.
Interest in Rego’s work surged after her major 2021 retrospective held at the Tate. Her prints account for 72% of her work sold at auction, and they usually fetch between £1,000 and £5,000. They are especially sought after in the United Kingdom and Portugal, the two countries between which Rego divided her time until her death in 2022.
Fiery determination and unflinching honesty informed many of the artist’s pieces, but these qualities are also reflected in her personal life, which is just as fascinating as her extraordinary artwork. Below are eight things you might not have known about Paula Rego.
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Her Grandmother’s Stories Inspired Much Of Her Work
Paula Rego was born in January 1935 in Lisbon, but only a year later, her parents had to leave her and travel to England, where her father (an electrical engineer) had been posted. Rego’s first few years were spent living under the care of her grandmother, who told the young artist all sorts of traditional folk tales that have been passed down orally for generations. These stories resurface in much of Rego’s work, including in some of her most popular prints such as Nursery Rhymes and Goat Girl IV.
Her Most Expensive Prints Sold For £20,000
Paula Rego’s Nursery Rhymes series comprises 25 etchings and aquatints, and it was sold by Bonhams in November 2013 for £20,000. Each image accompanies a well-known nursery rhyme, and the prints are an imaginative combination of the whimsical and the sinister. It is a testament to Rego’s technical talent that she drew directly onto the plates for this series, without any planning, giving the resulting images a wild spontaneity that can be hard to achieve in printmaking.
Nursery Rhymes sold by Bonhams in 2013
She Helped Sway Public Opinion About Abortion
Rego might be best-known for her Abortion Series, executed in pastel in 1998 as a response to Portugal’s rejection of a referendum to decriminalise abortion. Unusually for Rego, she revisited the issue a year later in a set of 12 prints, which were sold in September 2011 for £17,000 by Christie’s. The idea was that the prints would be circulated more widely than the pastels, and thus reach a broader audience.
The images in Rego’s Abortion Series are extraordinary in their own right, sensitively portraying women in the midst of agonising physical and psychological pain as they undergo backstreet abortions. What makes the images even more remarkable is their effect; they were widely publicised across a number of media outlets in the run up to the second Portuguese referendum on abortion in 2007, and they are widely credited with being pivotal to the vote’s success.
She Was Interested In Narrative
Many of Paula Rego’s most well-known works are accompaniments to texts, such as the Nursery Rhymes and Curved Planks series, and others were inspired by mythical tales, such as Goat Girl IV. But the artist’s interest in narrative went deeper than that; Rego stated that one of the things she loved about creating art was the way an image could change in the process of creation. She found she could start out with a specific idea and intention for the piece, yet at some point, the picture would take over, and a whole new meaning and message might emerge, almost subconsciously.
She Was Married To Victor Willing
Between 1952 and 1956, Paula Rego attended the Slade School of Fine Art. It was here that she met Victor Willing, a fellow student seven years her senior. Willing was married at the time, but he and Rego began an affair that was to last for several years and result in Rego having a number of abortions. Eventually, Rego left the UK for Portugal, having decided to keep their latest baby, and Willing ended up joining her there.
Following Willing’s divorce, he and Rego were married. The couple had two more children, and though the relationship was often tempestuous and involved numerous affairs on both sides, they remained married until Willing’s death of multiple sclerosis in 1988. Many years later, Rego stated: “I never wanted to marry again. What’s the point? I have my work, friends and family. I love Vic.”
Paula Rego and Victor Willing
She Grew Up Under A Dictatorship
Paula Rego grew up under the Estado Novo (‘New State’), a dictatorship which lasted from 1933 to 1974, for the most part under the leadership of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. The oppressive authoritarian regime curtailed civil liberties and enforced harsh censorship. Supposed enemies of the state were ruthlessly dealt with by the secret police (known as the PIDE), who frequently kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured, or assassinated supposed enemies of the state.
This was the backdrop against which Paula Rego grew up, and it gave her a keen awareness of social injustice and violence, which has always pervaded her work. Indeed, it is clear to see from an early age; when she was just 15, she painted Interrogation, a deeply sinister image confronting the torture and brutality that were so commonplace in Portugal at the time. Rego, however, has always rejected the notion she was particularly brave or defiant to create such an image, stating: “every picture takes courage. All artists are brave.”
She Preferred Pastels To Paints
Though Paula Rego experimented with many different media throughout her career, it was pastels that she returned to time and again, describing the process as “painting with your fingers.” She said she loved the versatility of the medium, as well as its intense physicality, which means “you don’t have the brush between you and the surface.”
Paula Rego. Untitled No. 4. Pastel on paper.
She Finished Her Days With A Glass Of Champagne
Paula Rego started her day in the studio by discussing what she was going to work on with Lila Nunes (her longstanding model and friend) over a cup of tea. She would then spend the morning working and listening to opera, followed by lunch and a nap, before returning to the studio to work, this time accompanied by traditional Portuguese Fado. At the end of the day, Nunes and Rego would always enjoy a glass of champagne together, which, according to the artist, made her “tipsy, in a happy way.”
