In its small but rhetorically charged exhibition Crivelli’s Garden, the National Gallery recasts a painting that Paula Rego created for its restaurant at the start of the 1990s as a Major Masterpiece of Radical Art. I could have sworn it was a gentle, playful work, perfectly judged for its setting in a convivial dining room, full of love for the Renaissance art this museum houses.
But no. According to Rego’s son Nick Willing in the exhibition catalogue, the late Portuguese-British artist saw the National Gallery as a place whose paintings “were made almost entirely by men and reflected the male experience”. When she became its first Associate Artist in 1990, “we joked that she was … in the belly of the beast”, Willing says. But “Paula erupted out of the belly of the beast stronger … exploring themes that quietly challenged the patriarchy to examine itself”.
