Everyday Stories. Paula Rego, the 70s
5 November 2022 to 21 May 2023
In 1969 and 1970 Paula Rego begins an illustration
process around her
memories of childhood and family, with their
underlying psychological
analyses of the relations of "domination" being
expressed in a number
of ways. They are the "everyday stories", as the
artist calls them, registered
in a series of drawings in Indian ink. They are set
in a defined area, Estoril,
which is narrowed down to the domestic space in
which the most formative
experiences of early life take place: birth, play
with other children, tantrums,
family visits and relationships, and in which the
dominance of the paternal
figure in patriarchal Portuguese society is, in a
number of works, brought
to the fore. These everyday instances are, however,
filtered by an oneiric
configuration which is frequently eroticised and
connects to psychoanalysis,
at times close to a surrealist aesthetic. Political
events are also brought under
Rego's critical and occasionally caricaturing gaze,
with drawings such
as The Candidate, Simulacrum and The Race to the
Polls, October 1969, depicting
the atmosphere which reigned during the National
Assembly elections
of October 1969, the first such elections to have
occurred during the period
known as the Marcelist Spring (Room 1).
In 1969 and 1970 Paula Rego begins an illustration process
around her memories of childhood and family, with their underlying
psychological analyses of the relations of "domination" being
expressed in a number of ways. They are the "everyday stories", as
the artist calls them, registered in a series of drawings in Indian
ink.
They are set in a defined area, Estoril, which is narrowed down
to the domestic space in which the most formative experiences of
early life take place: birth, play with other children, tantrums,
family visits and relationships, and in which the dominance of the
paternal figure in patriarchal Portuguese society is, in a number
of works, brought to the fore.
Following the Revolution of the 25th April 1974, and the end of
the
dictatorship in Portugal, Paula Rego's family encountered serious
financial
difficulties as a result of the bankruptcy of the business
inherited from
her father and which, since 1966, had been managed by her
husband,
Victor Willing, whose illness was getting increasingly worse.
Though the
period following the Revolution was a very difficult one, her work
would
continue to be shown in national and international exhibitions, as
a notable
example of the quality and originality of contemporary Portuguese
art.
These everyday instances are, however, filtered by an oneiric
configuration which is frequently eroticised and connects to
psychoanalysis, at times close to a surrealist aesthetic. Political
events are also brought under Rego's critical and occasionally
caricaturing gaze, with drawings such as The Candidate, Simulacrum
and The Race to the Polls, October 1969, depicting the atmosphere
which reigned during the National Assembly elections of October
1969, the first such elections to have occurred during the period
known as the Marcelist Spring.
Following the Revolution of the 25th April 1974, and the end of
the dictatorship in Portugal, Paula Rego's family encountered
serious financial difficulties as a result of the bankruptcy of the
business inherited from her father and which, since 1966, had been
managed by her husband, Victor Willing, whose illness was getting
increasingly worse. Though the period following the Revolution was
a very difficult one, her work would continue to be shown in
national and international exhibitions, as a notable example of the
quality and originality of contemporary Portuguese art.
Curatorship: Catarina Alfaro