Friday lates: Paula Rego – fairy tales and forbidden things
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
This course has now finished
Course Code: VB728
Duration: 1 session
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Center for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This Friday evening art history course introduces the life and work of Paula Rego, one of the most important artists working today.
Looking at selected works throughout Rego’s sixty-year career, we will explore how her childhood memories of living under Salazar’s patriarchal regime in Portugal in the 1930s and ‘40s has influenced themes i her work since the 1960s. In particular we will investigate how Rego’s art is shaped and informed by her distinct love and mastery of narrative. We will discover how storytelling in her work offers powerful re-assertions of women’s lives by manipulating traditional ideas around family and domesticity, transforming them into subjects of strength and knowledge.
This is a live online course. You will need:
- Internet connection. The classes work best with Chrome.
- A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone if you don't have a computer.
- Earphones/headphones/speakers.
We will contact you with joining instructions before your course starts.
What will we cover?
• The background to Rego’s life and work in Portugal and Britain.
• How Rego subverts traditional motifs from nursery rhymes to cartoons in her work.
• Discuss how Rego’s art challenges authority and confronts social and political issues in contemporary life.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
• Explain the relationship between the family, the church, and the dictatorship in Salazar’s Portugal
• Discuss how Rego uses narrative to reveal family dynamics in two of her paintings.
• Identify two sources from popular culture, literature or historical art that Rego re-interprets in her painting.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is suitable for all levels.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information as well as basic functions of Zoom, specifically microphone and camera.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught online with slide presentations and group discussions.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You might wish to purchase a notebook for taking notes.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Search our website for 'Friday Lates' to see a range of short courses on a variety of art historical topics.
Chantal Condron is a curator, teacher and writer with a dedicated focus on audienceengagement and enjoyment of art. As the UK Government Art Collection’s first curator of publicengagement, she led education and public programmes at the University of Hull, WhitechapelGallery and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and delivered art talks at the Britishembassies in Paris, Vienna and Washington DC. She teaches Art History at City Lit, in additionto teaching the subject as part of City Lit’s Ceramics Diploma course. She is also an Art Historytutor for WEA London, and teaches 'A level' Art History to London secondary school students. Chantal has worked widely in the public and private arts sector for nearly 30 years including at Tate, Sotheby's, Visiting Arts, Arts and Business and University of London Library. She holds a BA in 20th century and non-western art from the University of East Anglia; and an MA in Asian art from SOAS, University of London. Author of 'Peter Hedegaard', the first monograph on the London-based Danish abstract artist who exhibited in the 1960s and ‘70s (Rocket Gallery, London, 2019), Chantal continues to contribute commissioned exhibition texts and reviews.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
