The Family

Paula Rego

Words by Terrie Dai


 

 Title: The Family

Work: Acrylic

Artist: Paula Rego ( Born 1935)

Work Date: 1988

Materials: Acrylic on paper mounted on canves

Style: Expressionism

Size:h213.4 x w213.4 cm h84 x w84 in

Collection: Saatchi London

 

Appreciation

 

 An apparently innocent family scene is undermined by disturbing, sexually-charged undercurrents. The main action takes place between the furious youth and his determined sister who conveys an incestuous sexual thrill as she presses her body close, helping her kind, trusting mother to undress him.

 

This theme of rebellion and domination, with all its erotic undertones, provides the twist and ambiguity of the scene. The painting is representative of the style for which Rego has become internationally renowned. Simple yet sinister, her paintings are characterized by their monumentality and psychological drama. They often deal with ambiguous relations between men, women and children. Rego has also executed etchings based on her own interpretation of nursery rhymes and J M Barrie's Peter Pan, providing us with disturbing scenes from the traditional stories.

 

About the Artist

 

 British painter and printmaker of Portuguese birth. She trained at the Slade School of Fine Art.

 

She first won acclaim in Portugal with semi-abstract paintings that sometimes included collage elements culled from her own drawings.

 

In the late 1970s she turned from collage to drawing directly in acrylic on paper. Using an essentially graphic style reminiscent of comic strips.

 

Her characters often took the form of animals for satirical effect.

 

These psychologically charged presentations of human dramas, based in part on childhood memories. Because her grandmother was a significant figure in Rego's life as she learnt many of the traditional folktales that make their way into her art.

 

 

作品名稱:家庭

作品:壓力克顏料(一種可融油,也融水的顏料)

藝術家:寶拉瑞格(生於1935年,至今健在)

創作日期: 1988

材料:壓力克,紙,畫布

風格:表現主義

尺寸:高213.4 x 寬213.4 cm ( 高84x 寬84 in)

收藏:倫敦 泰特美術館

 

欣賞

 

本來一個溫馨的家庭,一個慣常的場面,卻隱藏着令人心悸的暗湧。

 

看不見面孔的男主人,從他穿着整齊的西裝,可以想像到他可能剛剛下班回家。他的女兒靠緊父親身體的敏感部位按住他,幫助母親給父親脫衣服。

 

窗外的陽光射進來,小女兒站在窗前觀戰,地上是她的投影。角落裡擺着梳妝櫃,櫃子下方畫着一隻鶴,正在按倒並吃掉狐狸。櫃子上方的畫,畫的是葡萄牙的民間傳說 - 聖喬治屠龍記。


從種種跡象看出,這幅《家庭》的主題是反叛,對峙與統治。畫面現場充滿四肢粗壯的人物,以強烈的肢體語言表現出強制,動粗,甚至還有亂倫的暗示。耐人尋味,引人遐想。


小女兒摩拳擦掌,是想幫助父親呢?還是想幫助姐姐和母親?是父親被制服,像龍的宿命?還是會掙脫,反而制服母親和姐姐,或許狐狸會跳起身,反而吃掉鶴呢?誰究竟會成為這個家庭最後的統治者?!


這幅畫讓瑞格成為這種風格的代表,她的畫簡單裡隱藏着險惡,怪誕,令人不安。充滿扭曲,諷刺,心理變態,缺陷,童年陰影等,給人猛烈的驚悸和刺痛,並具有強烈的戲劇性。

 

她擅長以心裡戰術,處理男人,女人和兒童之間的曖昧關係。她筆下的人物,流露出動物的本能和天性。


她的畫裡經常加插傳統民間故事,因為這些故事都是她在童年時,從祖母那裡聽來的,祖母是她生活中的重要人物,這些故事也成為她藝術中的重要部分。

 

關於藝術家

 

寶拉瑞格是在葡萄牙出生的英國籍畫家和版畫家。她就讀於斯萊德美術學院。

 

她早期的作品是半抽象繪畫,她的拼貼畫在葡萄牙得到好評。

 

50年代她移居英國,華麗轉身放棄拼貼畫,用各種顏料在紙上和畫布上,以漫畫的形式作畫。