December 23, 2022 - April 30, 2023
Paula Rego is a Portuguese/British artist who revolutionised the ways women are represented and is not one to compromise her truths. The Story of Stories showed how Rego authentically confronted oppression, authority, and institutional violence, while not being afraid to reveal her own personal nature and socio-political context.
The exhibition, curated by Alistair Hicks, re-affirmed the importance of her work in Portugal in the 1960s and focused on her emergence as an important artist on the London scene in the 1980s and 1990s. The Story of Stories focused on Paula Rego and her work across different disciplines. Through her works beginning in the 1960s, the exhibition demonstrated how she fought against depression, fascism, colonialism, and the anti-abortion movement, while also liberating her stories from the constraints of a male linear narrative.
Rego rescued stories and returned them to the mainstream of art. When she began her career at The Slade School of Fine Arts, she was dismissed for painting what was called "visual gossip." The ban against storytelling was just one of many ways men attempted to prevent women from competing as artists on equal terms. Each story that was told and retold helped reveal how rich the world became when we veered off the prescribed path.
The Story of Stories invited viewers into the magical environments of Paula Rego’s paintings—places where innocence and experience coexisted and where she dissembled deep meaning and narrative.
Image Credits
Salazar Vomiting the Homeland, 1960
Oil on canvas
94 x 120 cm
Courtesy of CAM-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Collection, Lisbon
Carmen Miranda, 1985
Acrylic on paper mounted on canvas
121 x 151 cm
Private Collection
Red Monkey Beats His Wife, 1981
Acrylic on paper
65 x 105 cm
Courtesy of Ostrich Arts Ltd. & Victoria Miro Collection
Untitled No. 4, 1998
Pastel on paper mounted on aluminum
110 x 100 cm
Private Collection
3D Virtual Tour
Exhibition Catalogue
Curated by Alistair Hicks, The Story of Stories focuses on Paula Rego’s work in different disciplines, re-affirms the importance of her work in Portugal in the 1960s and focuses on her emergence as an important artist on the London scene in the 1980s and 1990s. Through her works beginning from the 1960s, the exhibition aims to demonstrate how she has fought against depression, fascism, colonialism, and the anti-abortion movement while also unleashing her stories from the male linear leash.
As part of the Paula Rego: The Story of Stories exhibition, Pera Museum presents a story narration, “The Tale of Tales: A Journey into Words and Music”, by fairy tale narrator and art therapist Judith Liberman.
On the occasion of Paula Rego’s first solo exhibition in Istanbul, Pera Museum in collaboration with the British Council is hosting Elena Crippa, the Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain, and Paula Rego: The Story of Stories’ curator Alistair Hicks for a talk.
The Story of Stories shows how Paula Rego, a Portuguese/British artist who revolutionised the ways women are represented and is not one to compromise her truths, authentically confronts oppression, authority, and institutional violence while not being afraid to reveal her own personal nature and socio-political context.
Video
Pera Learning
Pera Learning is organizing various online and face-to-face workshops for children between the ages of 4 to 17 as part of its Carnival of Dreams Program.
Pera Learning organizes online and face-to-face workshops for participants between the ages of 4-17 as part of the Dance with Colors program.
Pera Museum Learning Programs organizes interdisciplinary workshops for adults within the scope of Istanbuls Today and Paula Rego: The Story of Stories.
We, by which I mean some of my classmates and I, knew about Paula Rego. I’ll have to admit, I didn’t know where Rego was from or even where in Europe Portugal was. I thought she was English. Let me tell you how I first heard the very un-English sounding name “Paula Rego”
While Paula Rego belatedly was recognised as one of the leading feminist pioneers of her age, little has been written about her exploration of fluid sexuality. Indeed the current of sado-masochism in her drawings and paintings, has tended to encourage an understanding as a classic clash between the patriarchy and exploited women.
Pera Museum, in collaboration with Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), is one of the main venues for this year’s 15th Istanbul Biennial from 16 September to 12 November 2017. Through the biennial, we will be sharing detailed information about the artists and the artworks.
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 - 19:00
Friday 10:00 - 22:00
Sunday 12:00 - 18:00
The museum is closed on Mondays.
On Wednesdays, the students can
visit the museum free of admission.
Full ticket: 300 TL
Discounted: 150 TL
Groups: 200 TL (minimum 10 people)
