'The Dance' Paula Rego 1988
Paula Rego The Dance 1988. Tate © Paula Rego
Paula Rego is a Portuguese-British visual artist who constructs her art primarily from childhood stories, fairytales, myths etc. Her main goal as an artist is to emulate and evoke nostalgia when addressing specific political woes that concern her personal experiences. Rego grew up in Lisbon and then moved to England when she was sixteen. She took a vast interest in studying art and refining her skill, which she started to cultivate at four years old. Her legal guardian in Britain enrolled her at the Slade School of Fine Art. In this place, her journey into becoming a world-renowned female abstract artist began. Her style varies from abstract to representational, favouring pastels and paints as a medium.
Rego is a dedicated feminist who reflects her passion and belief in her art and includes elements of her heritage in folk tales and themes native to Portugal. Her cultural heritage is an essential aspect of her motives and brand as an artist. It perfectly combines and raises awareness of culture and how it intertwines with others in a person's own story. Intermingling culture is something that undoubtedly makes its way into her art with finesse and character.
'The Dance', shortly completed after her husband's death in 1988, is a large acrylic painting on paper canvas, which was her most immense produced work at the time. It depicts eight figures dancing on a moon-lit background beach with a dark, ominous castle-fortress looming in the background atop a shadowed hill. Whilst somewhat romantic in tone and nostalgic to look at, this piece comes with an underlying feeling of grief and loss for Rego herself. It is believed that she modelled one of the male dancers after her late husband. The dancing characters include a triad matriarch dancing joyfully in a circle (a young girl, presumably her mother and then her grandmother), a solemn embrace between a pregnant woman and her husband, and then the refreshing look of a couple in courtship in the foreground, with lastly the woman dancing alone. Rego's intention with this particular piece was to show that our personality changes with our interactions, social circles, environment, and private solitude. The circle of a family dancing jubilantly express a different emotion and tone to the woman swaying by herself with a sombre expression. It is thought that the woman solemnly dancing by herself, presented to be the most significant character compositionally on the canvas, is a mirror of Rego herself caught in her state of grief. If we consider the two couples at different stages in their relationship and the reminder of a family behind her, we can understand why.
Grief, family and loss can be taken as one interpretation from this piece. Still, suppose we consider Portugal's cultural heritage and political implications of the Estado Novo period of dictatorship. In that case, the context and interpretation change dramatically.
We draw our attention to the castle-fortress in the far right corner. There is an undoubted shift of tone, from the romanticised moon-lit scene of dancers to a more foreboding and mysterious vibe. The seemingly desolate fortress is thought to replicate a prison erected near where Rego grew up in Lisbon. Contextually, the military prison-fortress was used as a prison and torture site under the totalitarian rule of António de Oliveira Salazar. 'The Policeman's daughter' (a similar piece by Rego) shows how Portugal suffered fear and retribution from a secret police and groups of civilian informants that led to the capture and imprisonment of thousands of innocent people. Of whom were taken to several locations for unimaginable torture and interrogation, one of which is the supposed representation of that fortress on the Estoril coast in Caxias. Like in 'The Policeman's Daughter', the inclusion of the castle-fortress - a reminder of the oppression and injustice people experienced - acts as a symbol for the complacency and willful ignorance people had during this time. Here we have a group of people of varying ages and circumstances dancing joyfully whilst in the background, a building representing human suffering stands tall. It's interesting here how all their backs are turned away from it. This undoubtedly highlights how human ignorance is bliss, but also how it's essential to find joy, despite the suffering.
Rego is a great commentator on human behaviour and how it changes and conflicts with itself. Her ongoing fascination with fairytales and using childhood memories to represent darker themes in her work is a perfect way to reflect the tumultuous and sometimes oddly confusing state of the human condition. 'The Dance' is a notable representation of this. Still, to truly appreciate Rego's work, it's essential to see how the story changes and progresses. Whilst all the same sticking to her roots throughout her long career's repertoire.
For more information on Paula Rego visit the Tate website https://www.tate.org.uk/