Image series 50 / 2022: Paula Rego

Monkeys, Bears, Dogs, Lions, Butterflies

5 December 2022 | By: Bettina Pfleging

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In the late 1980s, the Portuguese-English painter Paula Rego, considered one of the most important figurative painters of the present day, confused the public with paintings of violent, cartoonishly simplified red monkeys, bears and other animals, works full of black humour. For her, they are images of incomplete separations between the inner and outer worlds.
More than 80 paintings, drawings, prints, costumes by Paula Rego, who died this year, are shown in the exhibition conceived as an opera about the human condition.

„Paula Rego. There and Back Again”
30th December 2022 to 29th January 2023, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover

01

Paula Rego. Birth of Red Monkey, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 68,5 × 101 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

02

Paula Rego. O Macaco Vermelho Oferece ao Urso Uma Pomba Envenenada, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 69 × 101 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

03

Paula Rego. Red Monkey drawing, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 76,5 × 56 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

04

Paula Rego. Monkeys drawing Each Other, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 68,5 × 101 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

05

Paula Rego. Bear, Bear’s Wife and Son Play with Red Monkey, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 69 × 105 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

06

Paula Rego. Red Monkey Beats his Wife, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 65 × 105 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

07

Paula Rego. Wife Cuts Off Red Monkey’s Tail, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 68 × 101 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut

08

Paula Rego. Butterfly Escapes Lion and Dog, 1981, Acryl auf Papier, 68,5 × 101 cm; ConedaKOR Frankfurt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut