Paula Rego retrospective at Tate Britain explores her subversive figurative paintings

A retrospective of Paula Rego's work at Tate Britain from July 7 to October 24 reveals her career-long interrogation of power, gender, and violence. The exhibition opens with The Interrogation (1950), painted when Rego was fifteen before studying at London's Slade School. Her early work includes Salazar Vomiting the Homeland (1960), a surreal critique of Portugal's dictatorship under António de Oliveira Salazar. Rego later incorporated Pop art elements in works like Turkish Bath (1960) while grappling with consumer culture's objectification of women. By the 1960s, her style shifted toward graphic lines in paintings such as The Firemen of Alijo (1966). Following personal struggles and Jungian therapy, Rego returned to figuration in the late 1970s and 1980s with psychologically charged works like The Little Murderess and The Policeman's Daughter (both 1987). The 1990s saw powerful series including Dog Woman (1994) and Untitled pastels responding to Portugal's 1998 abortion referendum. In the 2000s, her allegorical scope expanded to address colonialism and fascism in works like The Pillowman triptych (2004). Throughout her career, Rego has reworked figurative painting traditions from a distinctly female perspective, challenging the male-dominated art world.