This new exhibition of Paula Rego at Galerie Lelong focuses on an intense three-year period (2005–2007) during which the artist worked in her London studio, concentrating almost exclusively on drawing and lithography. Having just turned seventy, she embraced the immediacy of these two mediums, which allowed her to explore darker and more complex themes than ever before.
Paula Rego was an avid reader, particularly of novels, fairy tales, and legends. She had previously worked from sources such as Jane Eyre and Peter Pan. The Prince Pig series offers a sharp exploration of the morality tale The Pig King, a sixteenth-century story written by the Venetian author Giovanni Francesco Straparola. The pig, an anthropomorphic figure omnipresent throughout her work, was her favourite animal; it reminded her of the pig her grandparents raised during her childhood in Portugal, to which she had grown attached, and which was eventually slaughtered.
Another reference appearing in several of the exhibited works is Paula Rego’s connection with the playwright Martin McDonagh, particularly his play The Pillowman and a series of unpublished short stories he gave her to read. For her, these narratives became a means of freely expressing her own story, bringing back childhood memories and an inner world filled with contradictions, conflicts, and personal crises. Works such as Shakespeare’s Room, Scarecrow, and Turtle Hands emerged from this process.
Drawing from Life is Paula Rego’s third exhibition at Galerie Lelong. Special thanks go to Nick Willing, the artist’s son, and to Cristea Roberts Gallery, whose support made this exhibition possible.
Paula Rego was born in Lisbon in 1935 and died in London in 2022. Having fled António de Oliveira Salazar’s totalitarian regime in 1951 to study art in the United Kingdom, she found herself immersed in the stimulating atmosphere of contemporary British painting. She became the only woman artist associated with the School of London, alongside figures such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, and Leon Kossoff.
In 2018, a major exhibition dedicated to her, Paula Rego: The Cruel Tales, was presented at Musée de l'Orangerie. A major retrospective has been on view at Munchmuseet since 24 April 2026.
Her work is held in numerous collections, including those of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; British Museum; National Gallery; Tate Britain; Tate Modern; as well as the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
