I’ve been down a deep rabbit hole since 8 June, the date that artist Paula Rego died at age 87. I was saddened to hear about her death, particularly as it struck me that I’d been meaning to do a blog post on this incredibly courageous magnificent artist but that it had now taken her death to spur me on to actually do something about it.

Yet I hardly you know what to say. There’s so much that I admire about this artist and her work: her bravery with content, with size, with medium. So much of the work in the later part of her life, after age 59, is done in pastel. Imagine. Pastel!

I’ve been inspired by this artist for years. Her unwavering commitment to expressing her rage at political, religious, and social issues, through fantastical narratives often based on fairy and folk tales or work by Old Masters (think Hogarth and?). And so many of these paintings done with the lush and linear application of pastel. Rego is a drawer at heart and pastel offered the visceral dynamics of both a drawing and painting tool.

Her work often combines menace and eroticism. This tension makes us as the viewer uncomfortable as we experience this complex combination of feelings. And she creates a situation where we then self-reflect on how we experience her paintings.

This combination is clearly apparent in the Father Amaro series based on the story by Portuese writer Eça de Queirós. Rego was quoted as saying, “The Sin of Father Amaro is critical of society, very well observed and delicious to read, but above all it is a love story, I am always immensely moved by it. My father greatly admired this book at the time when it was still banned. These pictures are a homage to him” (Paula Rego quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Paula Rego, 1998, n.p.).

In the end, I decided that I’d show you four pieces, each of a single woman rather than her multi-figure pieces. We’ll then take a close look at one of them. “I paint the women I know. I paint what I see. I make women the protagonists because I am one,” Rego told the Guardian newspaper in an interview in 2021.

“Dog Woman,” the first in a series of the same name, is the painting that started Paula Rego down the road of using pastels rather than acrylic paint. (Click here to hear why she decided to use pastels and also a bit about this series).

In “Dog Woman,” you cannot help but feel the ferocity of this snarling woman, crouched and looking up awkwardly. The woman as dog is a solid being and we certainly experience Rego’s skill as a draftsman. I love examining the way she uses pastel. Remember, her painted work before this was primarily in paint. Here she’s exploring the medium and you see through the work that comes later, how she moves through different ways of using the material.

Next is “Looking Out,” part of the Father Amaro series. I love this one for the stance of the woman, facing away from us. Rego talks about this painting in the documentary Paula Rego: Telling Tales by Jake Auerbach: “She [Ameila] goes into the country away from polite society. She looks out of the window. She says her bottom half is polluted because she is pregnant [by Father Amaro] and she can’t show it. Sad story.”

For me, this painting brings to mind Degas’ Washer Women paintings. There’s also something about the design, with the window, that made me think of his painting, “Woman at the Window.”

(When I looked it up though, I thought, hmmmm, not much like it. It’s funny how one painting will bring another to mind even though visibly, there may not actually be much to connect them.) 

And then there are the paintings in Rego’s Abortion series (10 paintings in all)  that Rego did in response to the 1998 failed referendum in Portugal. The President later gave credit to these paintings for the legalization of the procedure in 2007. 

Rego was a strong and tireless proponent of women’s rights and a believer in the resilience and strength of women to withstand much.

This is the first in the series – unwavering as she looks out at us, this woman asks us to look and question.

Click here to watch a very short clip about the painting.

The final painting I want to share with you “Angel,” the last in the Father Amaro series. Rego says of this, “I added another character which is my avenging angel She has a sword in one hand and a sponge in the other which are the symbols of the crucifixion. She’s an angel of redemption and revenge.”

Interesting the symbols she includes – the symbols of torturing Christ on the cross. Yet the angel uses these to bring justice, swiftly and also gently with a healing hand. The sponge makes me think of cooling water and a gentle bath, being cared for by a healing caring person. The sword? Perhaps in a strange sort of way.

Radiant and powerful, calm and confident, she looks out at us questioning, waiting.

Let’s have a closer look at this painting.

First the hand holding the sponge…so beautifully executed. Personally, I find hands one of the more difficult parts of the human body to execute convincingly so I’m always examining them in other people’s paintings!

I love the way Rego includes both painterly strokes and linear marks in her work. Look at the right back wall – can you see how she’s taken the colour used in the skirt and scribbled a few marks over the wall to connect the two. You can also see her use of directional linear strokes in the floor.

And ohhhh the glory of that taffeta skirt! I almost have to half close my eyes to look at it! Can you experience that effect too? This is a great painting to study of you want to improve your expression of shiny fabric!

With the simplest combo of blacks, greys, and whites, Rego constructs this believable bodice – the pull and tuck of it – and sleeves.

And finally, the face. So much said! A knowing smile, a questioning look, even a dare-you look. What else can you see there? The femininity of this presence comes across more in the glorious dress than the face and hands that seem to reveal someone without airs and graces.

This has been a small taste of Paula Rego’s work. Many paintings are multi-figured full of chaos, confusion, and complexity. They all have a story for us to decipher. They are usually unsettling. They ask us to go inward and examine our own fears, morals, attitudes. They seduce us by the lushness of colour, strength of design, activity of marks, while at the same time, repelling us with the content. And yet we are drawn back by the physicality of the figures and the plasticity of the surface. Disturbing as they are, we can’t help but be moved and curious about them…and ourselves.

The thing I think I love most about Paula Rego’s book is the permission she gives us to be so much braver in our own work. She tell us to speak up even when we are worried about what others might think.

I have yet to experience any of Paula Rego’s powerful work in person. I already know I’ll probably tear up as I often do when I meet a well-known piece in real life for the first time. I can’t wait!!

Until next time,

~ Gail

PS. Some time ago, I wrote a blog on GailSibley.com about the debate on whether pastel work are paintings or drawings. I used a Paula Rego piece as an example.

PPS. I recently wrote about Paul Rego and touched on her history in my Pastel Today blog.

PPPS. Below you’ll find a number of links to some texts and videos for you to explore as you have time. There is so much to discover about this artist and I hope you find as much pleasure digging into her work and history as I have.

Here’s a beautiful book of her work that may be of interest:

And if you’re interested, here’s a complete collection of her graphic work. So much of it reminds me of Goya’s!

And there’s a catalogue that accompanied the travelling exhibition of her work called Obedience and Defiance:

Some Resources on Paula Rego

A marvellous collection of videos of an interview with Paula Rego – pick and choose from the Playlist or watch them all!

About the Abortion series:

An article in the Guardian.

An article in The Conversation.

About the Betrothal series:

Read about it on the Tate Gallery website.

Work from her 2017 show on Depression (you can see how the work is less colourful than in the past)

And here’s an article about her son’s film about Paula Rego this series of work done in response to depression.

A marvellous interview in The Guardian when Rego was 86.

An interview by Richard Zimler (I’m not sure when) from the University of Cambridge’s 

A fascinating interview with Rego in the White Review.

Tate curator Elena Crippa takes us through some of Rego’s paintings in this video.

10:56 “Fear is probably the most important thing. I mean you might as well look at it, might’nt you, if you can, if you have the courage to do it because sometimes you don’t want to look.”

“The picture allows you to feel all sorts of forbidden things. That is why you do pictures because you get at things you didn’t realise and you’re even allowed to do outrageous things and everything.“

Paula at the printing studio:

And to end, Jonathan Jones’s tribute in the Guardian.

Paula Rego ( 26 January 1935 – 8 June 2022)