Young Predators

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Office of the COP President, 9 Downing Street

Two youth scantily clad in draped cloth whisper to each other, as one of the figures straddles a large dog. Further animals – one appearing like a monkey, and the other a wolf – populate the background, alongside a third figure who leads them away with a walking stick. A ‘painter of stories’ celebrated for her dark, complex paintings, prints, drawings, and collages, Paula Rego draws upon folk and fairytales, literature, and her own biography to create politically charged, deeply unsettling tableaux. Her forceful compositions are imbued with cruelty – both subtle and overt – and permeated with a sense of unease and ambiguity. Foregrounding women and girls, and often using animals as stand-ins for humans, she depicts dysfunctional family relationships, political systems, and social structures.
This etching with aquatint is part of the Artists’ Choice portfolio, a series of 48 works by artist alumni from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. The portfolio was produced in 1987 to celebrate the RCA’s 150th anniversary and included leading figures in British printmaking. Since the late 1940s, the RCA’s printmaking department has developed a renowned reputation for the teaching and encouragement of innovative printmaking techniques, from etching and aquatinting to screenprinting.

Paula Rego was born in Lisbon in 1935. The subjects of her works explore human relationships, often influenced by her childhood memories of Portugal. She trained at the Slade School in London (1952–56) and met the painter Victor Willing. After marrying, they lived in Portugal from 1957–63. After his death, Rego settled in London in 1988 and that year, major shows featured at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and the Serpentine Gallery. Her show, Nursery Rhymes toured internationally (1991–96) and retrospectives were held in Liverpool and Lisbon (1997). In 1998 a solo exhibition was held at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Rego’s works are held in international collections including the Tate, London and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Places

Subjects

dog, girl, walking stick

Materials & Techniques

etching, aquatint

Artist

Paula Rego (1935 - 2022)

Title

Young Predators

Portfolio Title

Artists' Choice

Edition

45/48

Date

1987

Medium

Etching and aquatint

Dimensions

height: 30.50 cm, width: 30.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Royal College of Art, November 2007

Inscription

below image: 45/48 / Paula Rego

Provenance

Royal College of Art

GAC number

18161/37