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catrinamcgregorcontextlog · 4 years

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Paula Rego

Paula Rego was born in Lisbon on the 26th of January 1935. She studied at Slade school of fine art. She is currently based in London. Rego creates beautiful pastel works usually based on storybooks and nursery rhymes. She portrays feminism and female roles in many of her works.

The Dance (1988) | Acrylic paint on paper and canvas | 2126 x 2740 mm

Summary

Rego developed 11 preparatory studies of the dance before settling for the composition of this final piece.

analysis

Rego’s use of gloomy colour adds to the dreamlike qualities of this piece as well as providing contrast for the figures in the foreground. The dark blue moonlit sky, sea and ground helps set the night time scene and dreamlike quality that is often seen in Rego’s work. She also uses colour to create contrast, the background is mostly dark blue colours, while the figures begin to have warmer colours, this helps them to stand out from the background.

Rego uses scale to make the lonely woman dominate alongside the figures to her right. The woman on her own at the left is much larger than the other figures, this makes her stand out and in a way, compensate for being the only one alone. She appears confident and independent, she’s doing just fine on her own - in addition, she is looking directly at the viewer with a smile on her face, this further pushes the narrative that she is a strong, happy independent woman and she does not need a man or a family to complete her. I think this sends a very positive message to women, seeing a happy woman being her own person, it challenges the expectation that has been drilled into many women’s heads that you can only be happy and complete if you have a man, or a child.

techniques

Rego heavily diluted her acrylic colours at the beginning of the painting. she used dull pinks and browns to mark tone, she outlined the forms in diluted paint. Rego began to apply thicker strokes of paint once she had her tone and outlines down. she left some areas of the painting with the thin pain application, for example, in the sky.

For the face of the men, Rego referenced her son who sat for her and a photo of her husband. Rego likes to work from live models as much as she can.

context

Rego explores feminine roles that are often expected or sought after by young women and society. These 4 roles are; loneliness, finding someone, having a baby and taking care of you family for generations - it makes me think that the roles expected are centred around reproduction and that a women has the responsibility to care for those she creates.

Perhaps Rego is showing the cycle a women is expected to be in, hence why they are dancing in a circular form. The lonely women becomes the woman with the man, then the pregnant woman, then the grandmother, mother and child - then the child becomes that lonely woman and the cycle repeats itself.

Another way to look at this is that Rego is trying to communicate that women have multiple routes to take, you can be a mother, apart of a couple or just being your own company, any path you choose is good as long as it’s what you want - you can find fulfilment in any path.

War (2003) | Pastel on paper on aluminium | 1600 x 1200 mm

Summary

Rego made this in response to the early stages of the Iraq war, she saw a photograph of a little girl screaming and running away from and explosion while a woman and a baby stood still.

analysis

Rego bands the colour to create depth. In the composition, there are 3 bands of colour, plum blue for the background, dark brownish orange for the middle ground and a muddy yellow ochre type colour. The figures are standing on the yellow ochre band, creating a strict divide between the middle ground and background - this creates depth.

Rego uses scale to drag attention to the Rabbit holding the little rabbit. These two rabbits are the largest figures in the whole piece, as well as them being in the centre of the composition. They tower over the other figures, making them seem like the most important in this battle scene, its the first thing that catches your eye when looking at it.

techniques

Rego used pastels because ‘it’s like painting with your hands’ - Paula Rego. She starts by priming her paper with gesso the draws in her forms and tone with hard pastels, then gradually moves to soft pastels.

Rego likes to work from real life, her practice involves referencing live models.

context

This is a very powerful piece, It triggers my fight or flight response because of all the chaos. It is distressing to see the bunny figures with blood on them, the distressed face of the little bunny in the pink dress, it’s as if she’s yelling, similar to the photograph Rego took inspiration from. In addition to all the other characters in the scene where you have to squint to try make sense of whats really going on. It’s all captures the fear and terror that war does to people.

Dog Woman (1994) | Pastel on Canvas | 1200 x 1600 mm

Summary

Rego took inspiration from a story her friend, Degas wrote her. It is part of Rego’s ‘dog woman’ series

analysis

The figure is takes up the majority of the composition to emphasise the presence and emotion of the figure. The woman is seen on her hands and knees as if she has just lunged down with her mouth wide open, this is a very unusual pose for a woman and provokes a lot of questions - is she territorial? is she mad or excited? It makes the woman have a very impactful presence.

The gritty, muddy colours and mark making helps invoke the downtrodden and animalistic portrayal. Rego’s use of fleshy, earthy colours (seen on the skin, clothing and floor) along with her rough mark making seen on the hatching of the top, floor and blending of the face help communicate Rego’s intention for the woman to be very animalistic in her qualities.

techniques

Rego used pastels to create the gritty mark making. She likely used hard pastels first, the soft pastels later on like she usually does with her pastel work.

Rego had a good relationship with this model, Lila Nunes. Nunes posed for her live.

context

“To be a dog woman is not necessarily to be downtrodden; that has very little to do with it,” She explained, “In these pictures every woman's a dog woman, not downtrodden, but powerful. To be bestial is good. It's physical. Eating, snarling, all activities to do with sensation are positive. To picture a woman as a dog is utterly believable." Paula Rego

The girl in this work as well as the ‘dog woman’ series is someone Rego knows really well, Lila Nunes took care of Rego’s husband when he was dying as well as helping him paint. She looks at Lila Nunes and sees herself - “She’s like a self portrait (of herself)” Rego stated in an interview. Nunes is someone Rego loves and heavily admires, it makes sense that Rego sees Nunes as a perfect candidate to be the model of an empowering female series like Dog Woman.

The Bride (1994) | Pastel on paper on aluminium | 1200 x 1606 mm

Summary

The bride is also part of Rego’s ‘dog woman’ series

analysis

The positioning of the bride creates a bit of tension. The bride is oddly leaning on what looks like the side of the bed with sheer fabric beside her. the positioning of her hands, she’s gripping onto herself. The way she’s leaning doesn’t look comfortable with her her oddly bent neck and back and that she’s looking directly at the viewer as if waiting for instructions or just waiting, it gives off tension.

The light white of the wedding dress highlights the figure. The background is dark, muddy warm colours while the bride pops out from the scene with a bright white and silky wedding dress. This highlights the bride.

techniques

Rego used pastels in the same fashion she used on her previous pastel work; she used hard pastels first then soft pastels.

Rego had her daughter pose live.

context

The bride truly does give off dog characteristics. The way she is sitting, its like she is waiting for instructions from her owner - her lover. I think she’s laying at the bottom of the bed, why isn’t she laying on it? is she not allowed? must she wait until her owner says so? Rego originally made this series to also express the absolute love and devotion someone has to their lover and that it’s similar to how a dog loves. I think this painting portrays this devotion to a lover very well.

Resources

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rego-bride-t06959

https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/rego_paula_dog_woman.htm

https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-paula-rego/

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rego-war-t12024

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paula-rego-1823

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rego-the-dance-t05534

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