Regular readers of my blog know that I’m a big fan of the late Dame Paula Rego as I’ve featured her work here several times.
The exhibition, Letting Loose, at Victoria Miro in London, is of paintings from the early 1980s before she became so very celebrated.
These paintings are an orgy of activity and fantasy – painting as play – there’s just so much going on in them.
Manic tumbling and chasing is everywhere we look with strange animal and human interactions taking up every space on the canvas.
Her painting fizzes with energy- you can feel the speed and strength of her brush strokes in this crowded and bustling, funny and menacing world.
This detail of a female eating the head of a girl child or a doll is unnervingly compelling. Or am I being too dramatic? Much of this strangeness is hinted at in the title. Henry Darger was a writer and artist whose work, including tales of the Vivian Girls, was rich material for Rego’s imagination.
The paintings upstairs are in a more muted palette and preceded the ones downstairs. They too have a sense of narrative, like scenes in a play.
Some titles help with interpretation. See La Traviata below.
While Rego has her world, the work encourages us to create our own stories, opening out her vision to include us. What a treat.
