Paula Rego, born in 1935 is a Portuguese visual artist who is particularly known for her prints and paintings based on story books- but is also one of the most renowned artists of the 20th century. I have been interested in Rego's work for many years now- not only am I captivated by the way she explored themes of feminism, but also how personal she makes her works. Reggie's style has evolved from abstract towards representational, and she has favoured pastels over oils for much of her career.
As one of the words that I chose for this project was 'Childhood' I instantly remembered Paula Rego's 'Snow White' series; in which she uses the character of Snow White to create these extremely unnerving fictional and autobiogriphical twists. This series shows how fairytale and horror converge to portray famine experience. Ripping apart the light-hearted, fond memory we have of the fictional character- Snow White now appears as corrupt, ugly and hideous.
'Snow White and her Step Mother' 1995
Snow White is usually depicted as beautiful and elegant- however, Rego takes this from us and turns it into something rather chilling and very unusual. Snow White in this painting is depicted as this very stumpy, masculine character. The 'step mother' here looks extremely aggravated as she scorns at Snow White. This could possibly Rego's own reflection of her step mother.
'Snow White Swallows the Poisoned Apple' 1995
This painting depicts merely the opposite of an elegant, beautiful Snow White- but a middle aged women, pictured moments after eating the poison apple. As she lays sprawled across the bed tugging at her clothing and holding her neck- this painting suggests the violence and pain that she feels.
'Snow White Playing with her Father's Trophies' 1995
In this image, Snow White is depicted wearing a long white dress- which symbolises her virginity and innocence- sitting with her legs wide open in an unladylike way- she holds the head of a young buck between her knees suggesting her new sexual awakening- but also her insinuating improper affection towards her father. Sitting behind Snow White, sits her envious step mother scorning her.
Responding to Paula Rego's work
In response to Paula Rego's work, I wanted to experiment with painting some of my favourite childhood characters- Tinker Bell and Snow White. However, whilst painting these characters, I did not want to portray them in such a way for them to look beautiful or idealised, but actually rather sinister and unsettling- as I find this would be much more interesting to look at.
Tinker Bell
Prior to creating this composition, I had been looking at puppets- painting weird, abnormal bodies with very disproportionate heads. Tinker Bell is always portrayed as a very light hearted, joyful character however, in creating this painting I wanted to portray her as the complete opposite- but of something actually rather frightful.
Snow White
It's interesting how the effect of the watercolour has merged all of these features together- from her hair into her head, but also her clothing-creating a very interesting and unusual effect. There is a great sense of disproportion in this image, as her head is perceived as much larger than her tiny physique- re emphasising this unusual abnormality. However, what makes this composition most successful for me, is how Snow White is usually perceived as this very happy, light hearted character- but in this image she looks merely quite the opposite, appearing very dull and sad.
Visiting Paula Rego's exhibition
Last summer I visited Barcelona, in which I was lucky enough to visit the fascinating exhibition 'Family Sayings' featuring an extensive collection of Rego's work. Family Sayings is an exhibition that explores six decades of Paula Rego's work- from her drawings from the 1950's, to a number of much recent projects- but also the very renowned 'abortion series'. Rego explores a range of different mediums- from painting, etchings, prints and even sculpture. This exhibition explores in detail how women organise spaces of historical disobedience against the cultural imaginaries imposed by the patriarchy.
Here are some of the works that I saw at the exhibition.
I find the appearance of this painting very compelling- as it holds a very strong resemblance to the different puppets that I have been researching recently- with it's distinctively large head and much smaller body.
This is one of the paintings from Rego's abortion series.
Looking at Puppets
This was a puppet display that I saw at the exhibition- defiantly the most terrifying piece of the exhibition as I almost felt as if these puppets were going to suddenly come alive or look at me. From analysing the facial expressions of these characters- there is such a strong element of fear and distress shown. The mother in this display is depicted clinging onto her child, the maid holds what appear to be a dying person- surrounding them are more terrifying puppets- either looking extremely distressed or frightening.
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