"We interpret the world through stories... everybody makes in their own way sense of things, but if you have stories it helps. "
Paula Rego
Prolific Portuguese - British artist, Paula Rego, drew inspiration from a vast range of sources, from traditional folklore and fairy tales to literary classics and nursery rhymes. Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature presents three of the artist’s most ambitious and profound series of works in printmaking: Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre, made across a decade of the artist’s life. Each of these series will be accompanied by a variety of personal items from the artist, many of which have never been publicly displayed before.
Unseen preparatory sketches, etching plates and Rego’s very own childhood copy of Peter Pan will offer audiences an intimate portrayal of the artist's lifelong fascination with literature and insight into how the artist transformed this material into startlingly original and unexpected images. From menacing oversized creatures etched into life from children’s nursery rhymes such as Little Miss Muffet and Three Blind Mice, to the almost hallucinatory depictions of Neverland from Peter Pan and the tumultuous relationships based on power read about in Jane Eyre, Rego's work tells stories that combine fantasy and imagination, innocence and cruelty, in order to explore the complexities of life and the experience of women in particular, in all its strangeness and mystery.
Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature brings a unique cultural experience to Woking, providing an opportunity to step into the world and mind of one of the most important figurative artists of her generation.
Hayward Gallery Touring is the UK’s largest contemporary art organisation producing exhibitions that tour Britain. As part of the Southbank Centre, an engine of creativity for the nation’s artists and audiences, Hayward Gallery Touring is passionate about the important role that cultural institutions play in providing access to the arts. Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature will bring a unique cultural experience to new audiences up and down the UK, providing an opportunity to step into the world and mind of one of the most important figurative artists of her generation.
Header image: The Neverland, 1992, coloured etching and aquatint, edition of 50, © Ostrich Arts Ltd | Paula Rego Estate, courtesy Ostrich Arts Ltd and Cristea Roberts Gallery
