27 February 2020
For our February session, we will be discussing the major retrospective exhibition, Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance, where we will be joined by the curator of the exhibition, Alice Strang.
Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance is a survey of the Portuguese artist’s work that brings politics to the fore. This major exhibition is the first ever retrospective of Paula Rego’s work to be held in Scotland. Rego is one of the most important artists living in Britain today. Born in Lisbon in 1935, she is celebrated for her intense and courageous paintings, drawings and prints. The exhibition spans over 50 years of her international career, from the 1960s to the 2010s. It features more than 80 works, lent from public and private collections. Rego is admired for her courageous exploration of moral challenges to humanity, such as political tyranny, gender discrimination, abortion, female genital mutilation and the death of civilians in war. Other works in the exhibition begin with her Portuguese roots and lived experiences, or respond to current affairs and stories from literature, cinema, folklore, mythology and art history.
21 September 2006 at 6pm
To kick off the Autumn season, we will be taking a closer look at one of the most talked about shows at this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival, Ron Mueck.
The Australian-born, London-based artist is the first contemporary artist to be given a solo show in the refurbished galleries of the Royal Scottish Academy Building. The exhibition contains ten works, including the recently completed monumental sculpture of a newborn baby, A Girl (2006), five new works first shown at the Fondation Cartier in Paris earlier this year, and four previous works including Man in a Boat (2002) and Ghost (1998).
Ron Mueck previously worked in the special effects industry, but his career took a dramatic turn when he was asked by his mother-in-law, the artist Paula Rego, to create a model of Pinocchio. The sculpture was noticed and bought by Charles Saatchi. So impressed was Saatchi by this work that he asked Mueck to create more and to appear in the 1997 Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. The now infamous sculpture, Dead Dead (1996-97), a half life-size replica of his dead fathers naked body, drew considerable attention.
Some critics love Muecks work. Others hate it. Jonathan Jones of The Guardian described the exhibition as ‘blank, empty and brainless’. You will get the chance to make up your own mind up as we discuss the works with our special guest, Edinburgh artist Wendy McMurdo.
