Paula Rego

Paula Rego is one of the best-known living artists and her work in oil and acrylic paint, etching, aquatint and pastel spans seven decades. Curating the Paula Rego retrospective exhibition for Tate Britain provided a unique opportunity to reassess her work produced over 60 years. This lecture series will also bring to the fore specific aspects of Rego’s works, relating to their materiality and the subjects explored as much as the socio-political and theoretical terrain from which they emerged.    

1. Curating the Paula Rego retrospective at Tate Britain

The lecture will provide insight into the planning and staging of the exhibition: the research and selection of the works, the layout and structure of the galleries, the installation and covid-related challenges, and the writing of interpretation material.     

2. The 1960s: Painting into Collage

This lecture will analyse Rego’s early paintings and collage work, exploring influences from Surrealism to popular culture. Rego’s collage work will be discussed in relation to coeval developments and the assimilation of painting into collage.      

3. An Exploration of the Inner World: Rego and Jungian analysis

From the 1970s to recent developments, Rego’s work has explored her inner experience as much as the outer world and events. This lecture will address the influence of Jungian analysis and theories of the unconscious on Rego’s work. 

4. The Personal, the Political and the Fantastical 

This final lecture will focus on Rego’s work since the 1990s, unravelling the unique way in which the artist’s large-scale paintings and pastels address socio-political events from a personal perspective while imbuing them with fantastical elements.