In 2015, during a spring clean of the family home in Portugal, Paula Rego (1935–2022) and her son Nick Willing discovered a painting Rego had made in her teens. Drought (1953), painted at a time of acute water shortages in Portugal, depicts a woman carrying a malnourished child under a beating sun against an intense vermilion background. Its debt to the work of Edvard Munch was confirmed late last year, after a curator at the Munchmuseet unearthed a letter Rego wrote to her mother in 1951 about seeing Munch’s work on a school trip to the Tate Gallery in London. This exhibition in Oslo is, on one level, a sweeping survey of Rego’s career, from early abstract collages to the clothed papier-mâché sculptures of her later years (24 April–2 August). But it is also a thoughtful exploration of the similarities between Munch and Rego – particularly their way with stark compositions and haunting facial expressions – and the public’s first chance to see Drought in person.
Find out more from the Munchmuseet’s website.
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