The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum is hosting ‘Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature’, which explores Rego’s artistic inspiration from literature.
Regarded as one of the great printmakers and storytellers, Rego drew from various sources including folklore, fairy tales, literary classics, and nursery rhymes.
The exhibition highlights three of her most ambitious printmaking series: Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan, and Jane Eyre, created over a decade.
These series are complemented by personal items from the artist, many of which have never been publicly displayed before, including preparatory sketches, etching plates, and her childhood copy of Peter Pan.
These artefacts provide insight into Rego’s fascination with literature and her transformation of these inspirations into unique artwork.
Her work features menacing creatures from nursery rhymes, hallucinatory depictions of Neverland from Peter Pan, and power dynamics from Jane Eyre.
The exhibition aims to inspire audiences to see these age-old stories in a new light.
Layla Gatens, senior curator at The Wilson, said: “Rego is one of the most important British artists of the 20th century and a feminist icon whose revolutionary approach to image making has had a lasting impact.
“Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature celebrates the artist’s dream-like responses to classic literary works, folklore and mythical tales, materialised in her distinctive visual language to encourage a different way of seeing.”
The free exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme of events, a learning programme for secondary schools in Cheltenham, and a community engagement programme.
Brian Cass, head of Hayward Gallery Touring, said: “Throughout her life, Paula Rego used print-making as a central tool of her art.
“Taking inspiration from literature, she connected with stories in very personal ways, using them to articulate the conditions of her own life and draw her desires, dreams, fears, and traumas into sequences of remarkable pictures.”
Paula Rego’s estate added: “She often said that she had the most fun making the prints for these series because the stories were already laid out for her, but there’s no question that she made them her own.”
Further details on the public programme will be announced later this year on the Wilson Museum’s website.
