Essays on Paula Rego M Essays on Paula Rego A Smile When You Think about Hell R I A M M L ARIA ANUEL ISBOA M Smile When You Think about Hell A This book is an urgent and necessary additi on to the bibliography on Paula N Rego, and an important contributi on to scholarship about the arti st, but also to U E contemporary painti ng, Portuguese art, feminist art, and areas of scholarship L relati ng to the handling of the politi cal and ideological in the visual arts. L —Ruth Rosengarten IS B O In these powerful and stylishly wri� en essays, Maria Manuel Lisboa dissects the A work of Paula Rego, the Portuguese-born ar� st considered one of the greatest ar� sts of modern � mes. Focusing primarily on Rego’s work since the 1980s, Lisboa explores the complex rela� onships between violence and nurturing, power and impotence, poli� cs and the family that run through Rego’s art. E Taking a historicist approach to the evolu� on of the ar� st’s work, Lisboa embeds s the works within Rego’s personal history as well as Portugal’s (and indeed other s a na� ons’) stories, and reveals the interrela� onship between poli� cal signifi cance y and the raw emo� on that lies at the heart of Rego’s uncompromising iconographic s style. Fundamental to Lisboa’s analysis is an understanding that apparent opposites o – male and female, sacred and profane, aggression and submissiveness – o� en co- n exist in Rego’s work in a way that is both disturbing and destabilising. P This collec� on of essays brings together both unpublished and previously published a work to make a signifi cant contribu� on to scholarship about Paula Rego. It will u also be of interest to scholars and students of contemporary pain� ng, Portuguese l a and Bri� sh feminist art, and the poli� cal and ideological aspects of the visual arts. R e As with all Open Book publica� ons, this en� re book is available to read for free on g the publisher’s website. Printed and digital edi� ons, together with supplementary o digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com Cover image: Unti tled (Aborti on Series 1998). Copyright Paula Rego, Courtesy Marlborough Fine Art. Cover design: Anna Gatti . e book ebook and OA edi� ons also available M M L ARIA ANUEL ISBOA OACPCEESNS OBP www.openbookpublishers.com ESSAYS ON PAULA REGO Essays on Paula Rego: Smile When You Think about Hell Maria Manuel Lisboa https://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2019 Maria Manuel Lisboa This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Maria Manuel Lisboa, Essays on Paula Rego: Smile When You Think about Hell. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2019, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0178 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit https://doi. org/10.11647/OBP.0178#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/ All external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web Any digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at https://doi. org/10.11647/OBP.0178#resources Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-756-6 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-757-3 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-758-0 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-759-7 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-760-3 ISBN Digital (XML): 978-1-78374-761-0 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0178 Cover image: Untitled (Abortion Series 1998). Copyright Paula Rego, Courtesy Marlborough Fine Art, all rights reserved. Cover design by Anna Gatti. In memory of Chris Dobson, distinguished scientist, knight of the realm and much-loved friend. He was the man whom, as Head of House of my college, St. John’s College, Cambridge, a malign fate forced me, a card-carrying feminist, to address as ‘Master’. Sometimes. To my two grandmothers: Belmira Gabão and Adelina Lisboa. And to my two lovely mothers-in-law: Winifred Brick and Anne Woolf (Mrs. Ogre). A grandmother is a mother twofold and a good mother-in-law is a gift that keeps on giving. Contents Acknowledgments ix A Note on Images xiii Prologue: A Patriot for Me 1 1. Past History and Deaths Foretold: A Map of Memory 33 2. (He)art History or a Death in the Family: The Late 80s 95 3. The Sins of the Fathers: Mother and Land Revisited in 129 the Late 90s 4. An Interesting Condition: The Abortion Pastels 199 5. Brave New Worlds: The Birthing of Nations in First 275 Mass in Brazil 6. I Am Coming to Your Kingdom, Prince Horrendous: 291 Scary Stories for Baby, Perfect Stranger and Me 7. Paula and the Madonna: Who’s That Girl? 353 8. Epilogue: Let Me Count the Ways I Love You 389 Appendix A 409 Translation of Alexandre Herculano’s A Dama Pé de Cabra (The Lady with a Cloven Hoof) Appendix B 433 Translation of Hélia Correia’s ‘Fascinação’ (‘Enchantment’) Works Cited 441 List of Illustrations 459 E-figures 477 Index 459 Acknowledgments Life has thrown at me my fair share of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but in my Sea of troubles they have always been there: the lovely friends and relatives who have taken up arms on my behalf, kept me safe and made the difference in the choice between to be or not to be. Paula Rego puts dangerous and delightful thoughts in the most upright of minds without even trying. The inspiration for these acknowledgements comes from her and I blame her entirely for the implied violence. In approximate alphabetical order, Victoria Best, the loveliest of friends, who if I asked her to help me hide a body would say: ‘Of course I will, darling. Perfect timing: I’ve just finished baking you a cake’; Janet Chow, Colin Clarkson, Fiona Colbert, Hélène Fernandes, David Lowe, Sonia Morillo Garcia and Mark Nichols (I did say more or less alphabetically), magician librarians who would provide me with good reference books on how to carry out a perfect murder; Margaret Clark who would hide the body in her garden and use it for compost and Ken Coutts who would look disapproving but whose moustache would nevertheless twitch ever so slightly; Céline Coste Carlisle who would make me a tarte tatin to restore my energy after the deed was done; Chris Dobson who may well have been the best, kindest, most intelligent and funniest man I have ever known, and who might not have helped but would have watched and laughed if I tripped and fell over in the process of wrongdoing; Mary Dobson who would look at me standing over the body dripping knife in hand and say: ‘Oh, Manucha, I don’t believe you would ever murder anybody. You are a very special person’; Peter Evans, who would be delighted that I’d finally turned