'In her graphic work, as in her painting, Rego is a great storyteller who both persuasively and subversively seizes you at the first encounter, and then keeps a relentless grip on your mind and senses until she has finished her complex, infinitely subtle and reverberating tales.'
(T.G.Rosenthal)

The graphic work of Paula Rego has evolved over half a century and like many artists, she has used the medium of printing to explore some of her most absorbing ideas. The works on display present a diverse range of content, from nursery rhymes and children’s stories to Jane Eyre, the Children’s Crusade and the Marriage a la Mode series of paintings by Hogarth.

Her stories are inhabited with a diverse variety of characters that have been inspired by literature but are not simply illustrations. She has a collaborative approach to working with friends who model for her. They bring fresh perspectives to the studio, providing another ingredient for Paula to add to the complex tales and atmospheres that she constructs.

'First I have a story. Then I get a model to act it out for me. But as soon as I see how the models, so-called, the Lilas, the Tonys, actually do it, this brings out another idea. Because it’s so strident and then, even after I’ve finished, it looks like something else. So ideas have to just develop along how things happen. It’s very interesting to do it like that. Sometimes – even between poses – Lila sits in a certain way and I am immediately see something there and say to her let’s change the original pose. Stay like that. Because that goes more to the story I wanted. And it’s very much a collaboration.'

Her characters demand to be seen, unfolding stories that enable her vivid imagination to explore their world. The process of creating the works is playful, with a sense of Paula delighting in the opportunity to absorb herself and her friends into the stories, to speculate and wonder at the plot within which she finds herself.

You can find out more information about the life and works of Paula Rego at The Saatchi Gallery.