Turning to the Power Of the Portuguese Page
"Looking Out" by Paula Rego is a picture with three pedigrees. First of all it's English. You can tell -- especially by the way its unfamiliar pose, and its palpable yellowish flesh, and the fact that it was drawn from life rather than a photograph, call to mind the figures of London's Lucian Freud. Secondly it's Portuguese. For though Rego has lived in London for more than 30 years, she was born

Sunday, March 2, 2008

"Amelia (she is called) had a passionate affair with a priest (called Amaro) and she became pregnant. [She lived] in the country, where she was isolated. . . . She would sometimes look out the window to see who was passing. . . . And she could only show her top part because she was polluted from the waist down, because she was pregnant. This is what I did: Thick legs, heavy skirt."

There are more than 50 paintings, as well as many prints and drawings, in Paula Rego's retrospective at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW. Admission is $10. For information call 202-783-5000. Her exhibit, curated by Marco Livingstone for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof¿a, Madrid, closes May 25.