Curator’s Introduction: Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery introducing their current exhibition focusing on Paula Rego’s mural from the restaurant.

I had seen the show shortly before so it was really useful to spend an hour with Priyesh Mistry, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Projects at the gallery, learning a bit more about how it was commissioned, who the figures are in it and how it was painted.

I liked the way he guided us across the picture telling us a bit about the iconography of the women represented and how Rego’s take on them was sometimes different He also told us about the members of the education team at the gallery who had modelled for Rego during her period as artist in residence in the early 1990s which led to this commission.

Mistry also talked about how Rego wanted to use this work to introduce more women into the imagery of the gallery and to have a female view point represented.

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