Paula Rego is now a world famous painter, but she was born in the small city of Lisbon; she studied at St. Julian’s School also in Portugal, before going to the Slade School of Art, where she met her future husband. Paula Rego won the Turner Prize in 1989 and received the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by Oxford University in June 2005.
Her work can be divided into two groups: her early work, dating from the 60s and 70s, very childish and primitive drawings; and her most recent paintings, which were influenced by Salazar’s hard regime and can be classified as malicious, sinister and rather disturbing. She touches some subjects like sexuality, incest, abortion and death, along with the distortion of several fairy tales for children. Her work may shock, but appeals to our sense of justice towards the real problems that affect Portugal, Europe or the world itself.
Recently, her work is being exhibited in Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain. Her paintings are set up in nine rooms approximately and each room has at least five or six pictures (some with a lot more), this permits us to see almost all of her work.
In my honest opinion her collection isn’t rightly valued. The rooms are fairly small which complicates the appreciation of each painting, when all of them demand a high level of concentration to seek what’s beneath the oil.
Paula Rego is a great artist when understood. It’s difficult to understand at first but with the right context, I believe everyone can enjoy, relate to and catch her ideas and thoughts. An exhibition like this helps with that.
Her work can be divided into two groups: her early work, dating from the 60s and 70s, very childish and primitive drawings; and her most recent paintings, which were influenced by Salazar’s hard regime and can be classified as malicious, sinister and rather disturbing. She touches some subjects like sexuality, incest, abortion and death, along with the distortion of several fairy tales for children. Her work may shock, but appeals to our sense of justice towards the real problems that affect Portugal, Europe or the world itself.
Recently, her work is being exhibited in Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain. Her paintings are set up in nine rooms approximately and each room has at least five or six pictures (some with a lot more), this permits us to see almost all of her work.
In my honest opinion her collection isn’t rightly valued. The rooms are fairly small which complicates the appreciation of each painting, when all of them demand a high level of concentration to seek what’s beneath the oil.
Paula Rego is a great artist when understood. It’s difficult to understand at first but with the right context, I believe everyone can enjoy, relate to and catch her ideas and thoughts. An exhibition like this helps with that.
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