Sleeping (1986)
By Paula Rego
This work is a seemingly innocent scene showing four young girls. It exemplifies Rego's powerful use of iconography and socio-political allegory. Despite the blissful atmosphere, there is an underlying sense of threat, amplified by the rake in the foreground. The girl in the background is taunting a pelican. The bird, which according to legend pierced its own heart to feed its young with its blood, is a symbol of self-sacrifice. Under Salazar's regime women were venerated as child-bearers, but at the same time gender discrimination and violence towards them was rife.
[Tate Britain]
Paula Rego
(July – October 2021)
The UK's largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Paula Rego’s work to date.
Since the 1950s, Paula Rego has played a key role in redefining figurative art in the UK and internationally. An uncompromising artist of extraordinary imaginative power, she has revolutionised the way in which women are represented.
This exhibition tells the story of this artist’s extraordinary life, highlighting the personal nature of much of her work and the socio-political context in which it is rooted. It also reveals the artist’s broad range of references, from comic strips to history painting.
It features over 100 works, including collage, paintings, large-scale pastels, ink and pencil drawings and etchings. These include early works from the 1950s in which Rego first explored personal as well as social struggle, her large pastels of single figures from the acclaimed Dog Women and Abortion series and her richly layered, staged scenes from the 2000-10s.
This is a unique opportunity to survey, in the city that Rego has lived in and called home for most of her life, the full range of her work.
[Tate Britain]
Taken in Tate Britain
Sleeping (1986)
By Paula Rego
This work is a seemingly innocent scene showing four young girls. It exemplifies Rego's powerful use of iconography and socio-political allegory. Despite the blissful atmosphere, there is an underlying sense of threat, amplified by the rake in the foreground. The girl in the background is taunting a pelican. The bird, which according to legend pierced its own heart to feed its young with its blood, is a symbol of self-sacrifice. Under Salazar's regime women were venerated as child-bearers, but at the same time gender discrimination and violence towards them was rife.
[Tate Britain]
Paula Rego
(July – October 2021)
The UK's largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Paula Rego’s work to date.
Since the 1950s, Paula Rego has played a key role in redefining figurative art in the UK and internationally. An uncompromising artist of extraordinary imaginative power, she has revolutionised the way in which women are represented.
This exhibition tells the story of this artist’s extraordinary life, highlighting the personal nature of much of her work and the socio-political context in which it is rooted. It also reveals the artist’s broad range of references, from comic strips to history painting.
It features over 100 works, including collage, paintings, large-scale pastels, ink and pencil drawings and etchings. These include early works from the 1950s in which Rego first explored personal as well as social struggle, her large pastels of single figures from the acclaimed Dog Women and Abortion series and her richly layered, staged scenes from the 2000-10s.
This is a unique opportunity to survey, in the city that Rego has lived in and called home for most of her life, the full range of her work.
[Tate Britain]
Taken in Tate Britain