PAULA REGO: LOOK AT ME

The depiction of the self as a woman, artist and political observer is key to an understanding of Paula Rego’s work, as Professor Manucha Lisboa discusses with reference to Rego’s entire career

Paula Rego is an artist who famously narrates herself in her work: herself as woman, wife, mother, citizen, political spectator, witness/intervener and subject/object of her own gaze. Whether observing events in the arena of the personal or the national/political, at the heart of what she produces is always she herself, as impacted by the anger, anguish and terror that is the ontological adventure of female existence and the visual description thereof.

As such, her works that address the condition of being a woman and an artist begin almost always with her own life, but a life that is inscribed within both individual and collective concerns. This text will consider works that cover the spectrum from the deeply personal (Pregnant Rabbit Telling her Parents, the Red Monkey series, the Girl and Dog series, The Family); to reflections on the female body in a hostile social backdrop (the Untitled abortion cycle; the images on genital mutilation); and concluding with some of her least discussed images, namely her self-portraits.

Manucha Lisboa is Professor of Portuguese Literature and Culture at St. John’s College, Cambridge. She has published books and articles on Portugal, Brazil and Mozambique. Recently she contributed to the volume published on the occasion of Tate Britain’s retrospective on Paula Rego and also appeared on a panel of scholars organized on that occasion.

Intended age group: Because adult images and topics will be discussed, this event is not recommended for minors.