Rego, Paula

   b. 1935, Lisbon (Portugal)

   Painter

   For Paula Rego, there is a potential threat, a sinister unease that prevails in fairy tales. Born in Portugal, she settled permanently in London in 1976. In the 1950s she discovered Dubuffet and began to draw on childhood experiences, movies and fairy tales such as Fantasia, Snow White and Pinocchio for inspiration. At this moment her narratives began to function as moral fables. In the early 1980s, animals were used to express the contradictory nature of human emotions and behaviour, such as in her Girl and Dog series (1985). The sense of unease that her paintings impart is strengthened by her use of harsh lighting, heavy outlines and sparse settings. She creates large figurative paintings in acrylic or pastel, or smaller etchings reminiscent of storybook illustration.

   See also: painting

   NATALIE GALE