Victoria Miro is delighted to present The Forgotten, a major exhibition by Paula Rego. Held across the entirety of its Wharf Road spaces, the gallery’s first solo exhibition by the artist brings together significant individual works and important series, many rarely shown, drawn principally from the past 20 years.
Celebrated as a peerless storyteller, Paula Rego has often brought immense psychological insight and imaginative power to the stories that we try to suppress or tell ourselves only in private. Testament to a career spent exploring these hidden narratives and their associated stigmas, The Forgotten encircles themes and subjects that are often masked or concealed – out of politeness or embarrassment – such as mental illness and old age.
The Forgotten is accompanied by a book, published in January 2022, illustrated with all works in the exhibition and featuring a new text by the novelist, playwright and poet Deborah Levy.
|The exhibition includes works inspired by episodes from the artist’s childhood in Portugal, including the large-scale La Marafona, 2005, a tender portrayal that refers to the burden of her beloved father’s depression. Rego considers her own depression to have been inherited from her father and her identification with his suffering – and its legacy – is explored elsewhere in the exhibition.
All images via VictoriaMiro.com
