Paula Rego – The Fisherman

‘If Rego mythically brings to the surface some of what lurks in the depths, it is usually to do with perplexing human relations.’ — Deborah Levy

Writing about this work, novelist Deborah Levy comments, ‘The Fisherman pulls us into the surreal world of a doll-like child and a giant octopus with its tactile white belly and orange blistered tentacles. It seems to float in the deep of an inky black carpet that is also the ocean. A benign monster, the fisherman, sits next to a reclining woman on a mattress, his rod outstretched in what is both interior space and a landscape of rocks, weeds and parched riverbeds. If Rego mythically brings to the surface some of what lurks in the depths, it is usually to do with perplexing human relations.’

‘It’s completely my story, the Fisherman being my father. One day he was with my mother, fishing with a rod in the Cabo da Roca in Portugal. It’s the deepest part of the sea in Europe, and he saw that he had caught something with the biggest tentacles he had ever seen. My mother said, “Drop it, just drop it.” And he dropped it. I thought that was nice, that he didn’t pull it out of the sea!’
— Paula Rego, from the catalogue of the 2007 retrospective organised by the Museo Nacional Centro do Arte Reina, Sofia, Madrid

The work has featured in significant institutional exhibitions including the recent retrospective at Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany (2022–2023); The Cruel Stories of Paula Rego,  L’Orangerie, Paris, France (2018–2019); Paula Rego: Secrets and Stories, Casa das Històrias Paula Rego, Cascais, Portugal (2017); Museo de arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico, (2010–2011, travelling to Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil, 2011); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain (2007).

Props used in the creation of  The Fisherman in Paula Rego’s studio, 2021, photography © Gautier Deblonde

Dame Paula Rego RA was born in 1935 in Lisbon, Portugal. She died in London on 8 June 2022.

Works by the artist are on view in solo institutional exhibitions including Paula Rego: Rupture and Continuity, at Museu do Côa, Portugal (until 28 July 2024) and Paula Rego: Manifesto, at Casa das Historias Paula Rego, Cascais, Portugal (until 6 October 2024). This autumn, the major exhibition Paula Rego: Power Games will open at Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (28 September 2024–2 February 2025).

The largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Rego’s work to date was held at Tate Britain in 2021 (7 July–24 October 2021) and travelled to Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands (2021–2022), and Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain (2022). Works by the artist featured in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams, curated by Cecilia Alemani (2022). Other current and recent major solo exhibitions include Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Germany (2022–2023); Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden, The National Gallery, London, UK (2023); Paula Rego: The Story of Stories, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (2023 ); Paula Rego: Subversive Stories, featuring prints from across her career, at Arnolfini, Bristol, UK (2022); Paula Rego: Literary Inspirations at Petersfield Museum, Hampshire, UK (2022); Power Games, Museum De Reede, Antwerp, Belgium (2021), and Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance, curated by Catherine Lampert, which travelled from MK Gallery, Milton Keynes to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh in 2019–2020 and was on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin from September 2020–May 2021.

Rego’s work is in the collections of major museums including the British Museum, Tate, National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, UK; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, USA; The Art Institute of Chicago, USA, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, USA.