Above is a photo of my favourite painting by Paula Rego. It is a rare happy painting, because the artist’s work is usually quite troubling, quite disturbing. Her art depicts war, the position of women in society, abortion, FGM, people trafficking and more. Born in Portugal during an oppressive regime, her work is her way of expressing herself about those times. Later, she moved to London and was a student at the Slade School of Fine Art.
The dark content and often wildly abstract paintings don’t inspire me to take many photos and these slightly more acceptable views here are the only ones I took. Paula Rego plays on the more disturbing aspect of children’s fairy stories and folk tales. Her work spans very different artist medium from oil, watercolour and ink, painting on aluminum, to collage and etchings. Her sketch books are stunning to view.
Her life is an interesting and often sad one, and I find learning the background to an artist’s life helps me understand their work. It certainly helped here. I had recently watched a TV programme about her life which brought things into perspective.
There are eleven rooms in this latest exhibition, and is the first time I have seen her work in person. I studied a couple of her paintings for art history (The Dance was one of them), so I was thrilled to finally see the scale of her work.
I do wonder how she can work so much on dark subjects. I would find that very difficult. It can be the stuff of nightmares, for sure. They are works you don’t forget when you leave the gallery. The exhibition finishes in a couple of weeks time, should you want to see it for yourself.
Adjacent to Paula Rego’s exhibition was Heather Phillipson’s installations. I found them weirdly compelling. I wonder what you think of these photos! Sound effects accompany the exhibition, giving it an eerie atmosphere.
Autumn is arriving now, and on Saturday I woke to fog. I was out early and spotted the brilliant colours and spiders’ webs. I always have my mobile handy for taking photos, and I actually enjoy fog for picture taking – lots of liquid drops on leaves and so on.
Have a good week everyone.
My London+ 