The Autumn/Winter season begins in Gallery II, with an exhibition of new etchings by Paula Rego, amongst them, 6 portfolio prints that constitute the Curved Plank series, after the title piece from Yves Bonnefoy’s Les Planches Courbes [2001] and a set of prints connected with the theme of female circumcision.
The exhibition launches with a talk by Professor Paul Coldwell, who has worked closely with Rego on all her etching from 1987 to 2002 and has written and lectured on her work. He will talk about his collaborations with her over this time, allowing us an insight into this celebrated artist, who has produced a profound body of work as a printmaker.
Storytelling places the emphasis on the narrator who can reinvent the story afresh for each telling. In this oral tradition, meaning is not fixed in the manner of the written text, but reframed each time, often in direct response to the listener. In her work and with particular reference to her prints, Rego, recalling and revisiting her childhood and the illustrations and stories that have informed her work, invents her own stories, freely interprets existing ones and delights in the telling and retelling.
Rego is always a political artist; she seeks to challenge the status quo, and overturn existing hierarchies and in her pieces one can sense the voice demanding to be heard. In this way, she follows the rich tradition within printmaking of political discourse, including artists such as Hogarth and Daumier.
Rego’s prints are a vital element in her overall vocabulary. Paula as a storyteller needs an audience and printmaking provides her with a means for distributing her ideas throughout the world, and making her vision accessible to a wider audience. They are not minor works but complete images resolved through the manner of their making. Professor Paul Coldwell.
Paul Coldwell is a sculptor and printmaker and Professor in Fine Art at the University of the Arts London. His book, ‘Printmaking: A Contemporary Perspective’ was published by Black Dog Publishers in March 2010.
6 Sept – 15 October | Gallery II, University of Bradford
Thurs 2 Sept 5 – 7pm – Exhibition Launch & Talk:
Paula Rego – Printmaker by Professor Paul Coldwell