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A major exhibition of one of the most radical and influential artists of our time.

This will be the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the groundbreaking series of pastels created by Paula Rego (1935-2022) between 1994-95. Among the artist’s most striking, sensual and unsettling works, the large-scale Dog Woman pastels revolutionised the way in which women are represented. They also cemented Rego’s reputation as one of the most radical and influential artists of our time.

These imposing works depict monumental, physically powerful women, tightly framed in stripped-down settings. Rego said that their power was derived from channelling her own raw, undiluted feelings, squatting and posing in front of a mirror, ‘turning myself into an animal’. She also described these works as love stories, rendering the complex emotions of desire, longing, rage, and submission. ‘In these pictures every woman’s a dog woman, not downtrodden but powerful. To be bestial is good.’

The Dog Woman series was the first Rego made using pastel, the medium she became renowned for. Combining the attributes of painting and drawing, pastel was well suited to an artist known for her extraordinary command of line who considered herself a ‘drawer’ rather than a painter. With this series, Rego also began working with Lila Nunes, who became the artist’s main model and collaborator for the following three decades.

Rego’s exploration of the animal within the human charted new territories and catapulted Rego into the most prolific and critically acclaimed period of her life. The exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery will be the first to reassess the significance of one of Rego’s most important projects and its pivotal role in her practice. It will include works that have not been seen publicly in the UK since the 1990s.

The exhibition will be accompanied by Paula Rego: Pendle Witches on display in the Project Space.

Tickets go on sale in November 2026. Sign up to the Courtauld Gallery newsletter to hear our latest announcements and more.