Dimensions: support: 1200 x 1606 mm
Copyright: © Paula Rego | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: So this is "Bride" by Paula Rego, and it's in the Tate collection. The pastel feels both soft and unsettling. What strikes you most about the composition? Curator: The tension between the textures commands attention. The stark, almost sculptural quality of the dress contrasts sharply with the diaphanous veil. Note how Rego manipulates the pastel to create such varied tactile experiences. Editor: That's a great point, the dress does feel quite solid. How does that contrast affect the reading of the piece? Curator: The contrast creates a visual dissonance, perhaps hinting at the complexities and contradictions inherent in the idea of marriage itself. The form denies any easy reading of the subject. Editor: I see what you mean. It's less romantic and more...real. Curator: Precisely. And that is where the power lies: in its challenging of conventional representation.
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Bride is one of a series of pastels which Rego made in 1994 and which were shown that year under the title 'Dog Woman'. The pastels depicted women in dog-like positions, scavenging for food, baying at the moon, sleeping and grooming. Rego's daughter posed for this work wearing a 1950's raw silk wedding dress loaned by a friend. An early idea for 'Bride' had the model sitting on all fours, but Rego turned the figure so that she is 'belly-up in an attitude of surrender and ready to have her tummy tickled'. Rego has also noted that 'her hands and feet are uncovered, it was so vital that her extremities were exposed as they are in all animals'. Gallery label, May 1995
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