Paula Rego

The cover of the book Paula Rego: The Personal and the Political, shown against a white background. The cover has a bold design with alternating horizontal bands of bright red and lavender. The title is in a large, blocky font, with the text color swapping with the background color in each band. The publishers Hatje Cantz and Museum Folkwang are listed at the bottom.

A photograph of the book Paula Rego: The Personal and the Political. The hardcover book is set against a white background and angled to show its cover, spine, and page edges. The cover design is a bold typographic treatment in bright red and purple, with the title in a large, blocky, sans-serif font.

The back cover of a book with a bold geometric pattern in bright red and lavender. A block of red text on a lavender background provides a summary of the artist Paula Rego's work. At the bottom, there is an ISBN, a barcode, and the publisher's website.

An open book with a purple back cover and bright red inner pages is displayed against a white background. The right-hand page features the title in bold black text: PAULA REGO, THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL. The names Hatje Cantz and Museum Folkwang are printed at the bottom.

An open art book on a white surface. The left page is solid red with black text and the page number 14 at the bottom. The right page displays an expressive pastel drawing of a woman from the waist up, her head thrown back and mouth open in a scream of anguish.

An open art book with a red spine is displayed on a white background, showing pages 78 and 79. On the left, a colorful, surreal illustration titled The Three Golden Heads depicts three heads resting among flowers in a garden. On the right, an illustration titled Brancallor - The Seven Barrels of Wine shows a figure entangled in a large blue shape in a stylized landscape.

An open art book displaying a colorful illustration on page 121. The drawing features a woman sitting on the floor with her legs stretched out, viewed from a three-quarter back angle. She looks over her shoulder, her fists clenched. Her white bra strap is visible above a dark patterned skirt. Another woman sits in the background against a yellow, sketch-like wall.

An open art book is displayed at an angle. The left page features a full-color photograph of a large, seated doll holding a smaller doll, with a metal cart full of colorful pastels and paints in the foreground. The right page contains columns of black text on a white background with a wide, bright magenta border, showing page number 231.

An expressive painting by Paula Rego, titled Love, 1995. Seen from above, a woman with dark hair lies on a rumpled, deep red fabric. She wears a loose, dark, multi-colored patterned dress and looks up at the viewer with an intense expression, her hands clasped over her chest.

An expressionist painting, The Birthday Party, 1953, depicting a crowded and boisterous celebration. Stylized figures gather around a long table with a yellow and white checkered cloth. Guests are animated, raising their arms and glasses, while one man lies exuberantly on his back on the bench in the foreground. The scene is full of energy, rendered in thick, textured paint and warm, earthy tones.

An expressionist painting of three stylized figures on a gray background. On the left, a hunched orange creature with hollow eyes and tiger-like markings drools a pool of dark red liquid. In the center, a red figure with a striped face holds a large pair of scissors. To the right is the partial view of a large white figure defined by thick, curving black lines.

A sculpture by Paula Rego from 2019, titled Gluttony. A large, seated figure with a grotesque, mask-like white face and black hair wears an orange shirt and a black skirt. It is surrounded by baby dolls on its lap and on the floor. In the foreground, a standing doll holds a smaller doll's head.

A two-page spread from a publication with a vibrant red background. The left page features the words Still, Over and Over Again in a large, bold, black font. The right page contains an article on women's rights, featuring a black-and-white photo of an older woman holding a protest sign that reads I CAN'T BELIEVE I STILL HAVE TO PROTEST THIS FUCKING SHIT.

A two-page spread from a book showing two black-and-white line drawings by Paula Rego from 1970, with page numbers 70 and 71. The left image, The Chief, shows a tall, hunched man in a cap walking among several cartoonish figures. The right image, The Candidate, is a surreal indoor scene with a man in bed, a standing man, two crawling babies, and a large dark bird on the floor.

A full page view of the abstract painting Iberian Dawn, 1962. The mixed-media artwork features a chaotic composition of fragmented figures and shapes against a background of muted blue and earthy browns. A wide strip of paper covered in dense, handwritten script is collaged across the top of the canvas. Below, surreal, cutout-style figures in white, pink, and red are scattered throughout the scene. The number 60 is in the bottom left corner.

Paula Rego's 2009 artwork, Oratório, shown in a gallery. It is a large wooden cabinet on a stand with two doors swung open. The interior and doors are covered with painted panels depicting dramatic and unsettling scenes with human figures. The lower half of the cabinet contains a collection of sculpted dolls arranged in a somber tableau, including a figure holding a lifeless child.

A graphically designed table of contents for a book about the artist Paula Rego. The layout features bold white text on red rectangular blocks arranged in a staggered, interlocking pattern against a black background. The contents list a Foreword, a biography, and essays like Transgressions: The Private and the Political. A separate section lists chapters such as The Personal Is Restrained, The Personal Is Rebellious, The Personal Is Political, and The Personal Is Sacred, all with page numbers.

A book spread, pages 110 and 111, showing two colorful, expressionist paintings from 1986. On the left, a young Black girl holds a bright yellow dog on her lap. On the right, a painting titled Little Girl Shaves the Dog shows a figure shaving a dark dog's muzzle with a straight razor as a red bird with a yellow beak flies overhead.

A two-page spread from an art book, pages 52 and 53. On the left is an abstract painting, Order Has Been Established, 1961, showing childlike figures and objects in yellow and orange against a blue background. On the right is another abstract painting, Trophy, 1960, featuring a chaotic mix of rounded shapes in orange, red, and purple with bold black outlines.

Paula Rego

The Personal and The Political - English Edition

€ 44.00

VAT included. Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout

Edited by: Museum Folkwang, Essen

Graphic Design: Ariane Spanier Design

Artist: Paula Rego

Texts by: Antonina Krezdorn, Nadine Engel, Catarina Alfaro, Ruth Rosengarten, Julia Korbik, Rebecca Herlemann

English

July 2025, 240 Pages

Boardbook

170mm x 240mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-6095-9

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de

According to Article 9(7) of the GPSR Regulation, no additional security information is required for books without supplements or special functions.

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Powerful work by the Portuguese artist

Throughout her career, Paula Rego has relentlessly exposed social grievances through her art. The Portuguese-born artist, who made London her adopted home, is therefore one of the most important painters of our time. Her paintings are more topical than ever. They are dedicated to highly emotional themes such as political and sexualized violence, physical self-determination and mental health, always with a focus on women's rights. With more than 120 works from seven decades, the Museum Folkwang explores the tension between the supposedly private and the political in Rego's oeuvre, starting with Rego's paintings from the 1950s, which criticize the dictatorship in her home country at the time, through to her famous Abortion series, the artist's personal contribution to the discourse on the legalization of abortion. The exhibition and accompanying volume aim to show that the questions posed by Paula Rego have not lost their urgency. The resistance of her art is elevated to a design principle. The Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego (1935 Lisbon-2022 London) is one of the most important figurative painters of recent decades.

Paula Rego. The Personal and the Political Museum Folkwang, Essen

May 16-September 7, 2025