Paula Rego: Letting Loose

22 Sep-11 Nov 2023

Overview

An exhibition of works from the 1980s, a period of liberation and self-discovery that led to great breakthroughs for the artist and saw her first major exhibitions in the UK and the US.

'These paintings, perhaps more than any others, helped her to understand herself and those close to her.’ – Nick Willing

For Paula Rego the 1980s was a decade of creative transformation. Moving away from a process of making collages – drawing and painting material that she would then cut up and arrange into sophisticated figurative puzzles – she began instead to engage with her childhood passion for painting as play. Working rapidly and fluidly, Rego embraced freedom as methodology, inventing a cast of humans, animals and hybrid creatures that, in turn, empowered her to tell her own story.

Artists