Obedience and Defiance: Fifty years of thought-provoking pastel artworks by Paula Rego

'Obedience and Defiance' at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art opens on 23 November and will take a closer look at over fifty years of her career from the late 1960s onwards.

Considered to be one of the most important artists living in Britain today, she is especially known for her paintings and prints based on folklore and mythology and her style has evolved from abstract to representational, always favouring pastels over oils. In many of her works, we see a dash of traditional folk from her native Portugal.

A graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art and University College London, Rego was an exhibiting member of the London Group, along with David Hockney and Frank Auerbach. She was also the first artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London.

Speaking about the exhibition, Curator Catherine Lampert said: "It is tempting to focus on the moral, political and narrative significance and the meaningful details of a single work or a series, however, seeing Paula Rego's paintings on the wall, to me they appear so grand and museum-like, more like nuanced, mesmerising portraits of the people closest to her."

'Obedience and Defiance' at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art opens on 23 November 2019 and runs until 19 April 2020.