Paula Rego and the School of London

On the occasion of Paula Rego’s first solo exhibition in Istanbul, Pera Museum in collaboration with the British Council is hosting Elena Crippa, the Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain, and Paula Rego: The Story of Stories’ curator Alistair Hicks for a talk. The event will focus on London art schools during the 1960s and 70s through the lens of Paula Rego’s education at the prestigious The Slade School of Fine Art.

By the time Rego settled permanently in London in 1972, British figurative painting had become associated with a small group of artists known as the “School of London”, including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and R.B. Kitaj. This talk will reflect on Rego’s training and address how her paintings responded to, playfully engaged with and differed from the work of fellow London-based painters. It will discuss formal similarities and differences and the breadth of Rego’s sources of inspiration.

The event will be held in Pera Museum Auditorium and is free of charge. Places are limited, reservations are not accepted. The language of the event is English, and Turkish simultaneous translation will be provided.

About Elena Crippa
Elena Crippa is the Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary British Art at Tate Britain, London, overseeing activities across research, acquisition and collection displays. She has edited and contributed to numerous publications, curated the exhibitions Paula Rego (2021), Frank Bowling (2019) and All Too Human (2018), and co-curated the 2022 commission Hew Locke: The Procession. Her exhibitions of painters associated with the School of London have been presented at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2016; Museo Picasso, Malaga, 2017; AROS Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, 2017-18; The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, 2019; and Chiostro del Bramante, Roma, 2019. 

About Alistair Hicks
Alistair Hicks is a writer and art curator based in London. He was chief curator of the Deutsche Bank Collection for many years and is the author of many publications, including Urban Mirrors: Reflections from the Artists of Istanbul, Global Art Compass, A Voyage around Our Minds, School of London, New British Art in the Saatchi Collection and Contemporary Art at Deutsche Bank. Among the exhibitions Hicks has curated at Pera Museum are The Time Needs Changing, Doublethink Doublevision and Paula Rego: The Story of Stories.

Temporary Exhibition