Paula Rego, the Portugese-British visual artist who ‘ransacked and remade figurative painting’, has died aged 87. The news was announced by Victoria Miro gallery today.
‘It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of the Portuguese-born, British artist Dame Paula Rego at the age of 87. She died peacefully this morning, after a short illness, at home in North London, surrounded by her family. Our heartfelt thoughts are her children, Nick, Cas and Victoria Willing, and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.’
Born in Portugal and raised during the time of Salazar’s dictatorship, Rego moved to the UK in 1951 and, after studying at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, became a prominent member of the artistic community in the 1960s. She went on to become the first artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London.
Rego was recently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain, reviewed by ArtReview‘s J.J. Charlesworth last year: ‘Rego’s skill at materialising her subtle, self-conscious view of empathy, desire and the powerful forces that corrupt the lives of women and men, invents a world that, while acknowledging this everyday damage, does so knowing it can be overcome.’
Earlier this year, Rego’s work was featured prominently at the 59th Venice Biennale, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani. ‘A room dedicated to the work of Paula Rego in the Giardini (one of several take-breath-and-pause-for-a-moment mini surveys of women artists’ work) was the best thing,’ wrote Mark Rappolt.
