Experience the work of one of the most extraordinary artists, printmakers and storytellers of our time.

Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego drew inspiration from a vast range of sources - from traditional folklore and fairy tales, to literary classics and nursery rhymes.  This exhibition will present three of the artist’s most ambitious and profound series of works in printmaking: Nursery Rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre, made across a decade of the artist’s life.

Each series will be accompanied by a variety of personal items from the artist, many of which have never been publicly displayed before. Unseen preparatory sketches, etching plates and Rego’s very own childhood copy of Peter Pan will offer audiences an intimate portrayal of the artist's lifelong fascination with literature and insight into how the artist transformed this material into startlingly original and unexpected pictures.

From menacing oversized creatures etched into life from children’s nursery rhymes such as Little Miss Muffet and Three Blind Mice, to the almost hallucinatory depictions of Neverland from Peter Pan and the tumultuous relationships based on power read about in Jane Eyre, Rego's work tells stories that combine fantasy and imagination, innocence and cruelty, in order to explore the complexities of life and the experience of women in particular, in all its strangeness and mystery.

Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature will provide an opportunity to step into the world and mind of one of the most important figurative artists of her generation.

Image Credit:

Little Miss Muffet II, 1989
Hand coloured etching and aquatint

© Ostrich Arts Ltd Paula Rego Estate
Courtesy Ostrich Arts Ltd and Cristea Roberts Gallery

A Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition from Southbank Centre, London

Hayward Gallery Touring is the UK’s largest contemporary art organisation producing exhibitions that tour Britain. As part of the Southbank Centre, an engine of creativity for the nation’s artists and audiences, Hayward Gallery Touring is passionate about the important role that cultural institutions play in providing access to the arts.