May 17th to October 13th 2013
"I'm just trying to say lots of things in a simpler form.
But doing so is the most complex thing in the world." Paula
Rego
The new exhibition in the Paula Rego Casa das Histórias is
presenting, in the temporary exhibitions hall, a fundamental
nucleus of fourteen works (including the study sketches), from the
series The Operas, which Paula Rego made in 1983. With the
exception of the temporary exhibition hall, the seven exhibition
rooms are occupied by works from the collection of the Casa das
Histórias many of which have never previously been displayed
- and which are directly or indirectly related to the universe of
the opera, invoking tragi-comic relationships and dynamics between
human, animalesque figures and humanised animals.
This ambiguous and complex universe of interaction between humans,
animals, vegetables and hybrids begins to be constructed by Rego at
the beginning of the nineteen eighties. These are creatures with
human qualities and behaviour patterns, which are thrust by Rego
into peculiar situations, vivid dramas that loudly invade her
painting, making incarnate a whole inventory of subjects and
characters that are presumably identifiable. Rego received the
original idea from her husband, the renowned British artist Victor
Willing (1928-1988), who, when he was a child, had a little theatre
with a red monkey, a dog with only one ear and a bear.
The Operas established new principles of action into Paula Rego's
visual language, which multiply the characters and repeat formal
elements, explored in an unmistakeable thematic unity and style.
This new form of visually communicating her stories and
"imagiconography" will gain second wind in the paintings made
during the years 1984 and 1985, and, in particular, in her series
Vivian Girls and In and Out of the Sea, which recuperate and
intensify the colour as a structuring element of the composition,
increase the scale of the characters and grant the painting with a
strength and gestural nature that had previously not been
achieved.