Paula Rego: The Personal and The Political at Museum Folkwang, Essen

On view 16 May–7 September 2025

Based on around 130 works, the exhibition traces Rego’s artistic development after her studies at the Slade School, London, in the 1950s. The show focuses on the artist’s series of works, in which her most intimate personal experiences are transformed into images of collective experience during the artistic process. They touch on sensitive themes such as political and sexualised violence and counter these with self-determination, community and affection. Her medium of choice early on was paper. The exhibition’s selection of works is complemented by various paintings and examples of the dolls that Rego produced for her compositions in the 2000s.

This exhibition is the artist’s second retrospective in a German museum.

Read more

Image: Paula Rego, Love, 1995