Paula Rego — Drawing Breath — Lelong & Co Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: October 13 → November 18, 2023

Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris is delighted to announce its first exhibition of Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego (1935-2022). In the months leading up to her death on 8 June last year, Rego personally selected the twenty works on paper that make up this exhibition. Exhibiting in Paris was very close to her heart.

“Drawing is like breathing”, she used to say. Prone to frequent bouts of depression, Rego used drawing to fight it and several of the works in this exhibition bear witness to this struggle. They show how drawing enabled her to confront the complex emotions that assailed her on a daily basis.

Openly influenced by Goya, Ensor and Hogarth, Rego developed a singular and powerful body of work that confronts the critical issues of contemporary society. Her dream world was forged from the traditional Portuguese tales and legends she was told as a child. Having fled Salazar’s totalitarian regime in 1951 to study art in London, she soon found herself immersed in the stimulating climate of English painting at the time.