Now open at Tate Britain: a major Paula Rego retrospective

Since the 1950s, Paula Rego has played a key role in redefining figurative art in the UK and internationally. An uncompromising artist of extraordinary imaginative power, she has revolutionised the way in which women are represented.

The exhibition (7 July–24 October 2021) tells the story of the artist’s extraordinary life, highlighting the personal nature of much of her work and the socio-political context in which it is rooted. It also reveals her broad range of references, from comic strips to history painting.

It features over 100 works, including collage, paintings, large-scale pastels, ink and pencil drawings, etchings and sculpture. These include early work from the 1950s in which Rego first explored personal as well as social struggle, her large pastels of single figures from the acclaimed Dog Women and Abortion series and her richly layered, staged scenes from the 2000-10s.

It is a unique opportunity to survey, in the city that Rego has lived in and called home for most of her life, the full range of her work.

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Image: Paula Rego, The Dance 1988

Collection Tate

© Paula Rego