Triptych, 1998
Pastel on paper; mounted on aluminium
110cm x 100cm
Triptych is one of the most ambitious and challenging pictures of Paula Rego’s career.
Rego studied at the Slade School of Art in the 1950s and later settled permanently in London. However, memories of growing up in Portugal often inspire her paintings, particularly the stories and fairytales told by her aunt and grandmother.
She is fascinated by the darker side of human behaviour, and her pictures often reveal disturbing narratives of love and cruelty, focusing on victims of circumstances beyond their control. She draws on her own experiences, fears and motivations, and her subjects are predominantly women.
Many of her works carry political overtones, relating to her childhood in Portugal under the oppressive Salazar regime. Few are as politically engaged as Triptych and the accompanying series of drawings and etchings dealing with the theme of abortion that Rego produced between 1998 and 1999.
Purchased in 2003, with the aid of grants from The Art Fund, the Resource / V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
In more detail...
- Pastel
Rego started using pastels as a drawing medium in 1994. She was struck by the immediacy and tactile quality of the method. She has described the process as ‘like painting with your fingers’. A close-up examination of the surface reveals vigorously strokes of colour applied spontaneously in a way that could not be achieved with paint.
- Propaganda
‘They were done for propaganda’ is how Rego has bluntly described Triptych and the accompanying etchings and drawings she produced at this time. They were created in response to a referendum in Portugal in 1998 to legalise abortion. In the event, only 39% of the electorate voted on 28 June, with those against outnumbering those for by the narrowest of margins. The law remained the same until a second referendum in February 2007 led to the legalisation of abortion during the first ten weeks of pregnancy.
- Defiance
Although each panel shows the girl enduring her plight alone, Rego has stated emphatically that they should not be viewed only as helpless victims. She would like the viewer to see them as defiantly independent in the choices they have made.
- Detachment
Rego started work on the central panel first. She described how she approached drawing her model, Lila, as if she were a student back at the Slade working on a still life or life study: ‘The formalism was terribly important, the way she sat and everything’. This air of detachment was a way for her to deal with the intensely emotional subject matter.
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