PAULA REGO - BEHIND THE SCENES

Born in Lisbon in 1935, Paula Rego studied at the Slade School of Art and has lived and worked in London for most of her adult life. Rego draws on well-known sources, including literature, fairy tales, religious stories and cartoons, to give her paintings a strong narrative element that draws in the viewer. Fiona Bradley, a friend of the artist and the curator of her 1997 retrospective, provides a chronological survey of Rego's life and pictorial concerns, drawing heavily on her own assessmentsof her works as revealed in recent interviews. Making use of her extensive professional and personal involvement with Paula Rego and her work, Fiona Bradley provides the essential key to this mysterious yet hugely popular artist.