Paula Rego

Paula Rego (aka Dame Paula Rego) was born in Portugal on January 26,  1935. When she first started painting she would use oils and and acrylics but she has favored using pastels most of her adult life. A lot of her work is usually approached by an feminist viewpoint and is influenced by her Portuguese culture. She also includes components in her artwork that resemble toys, animals, and children that help her portray normal world things as a storybook. Rego moved to London in 1976 and still lives there. 


This artwork is called War 2003. This is a rather large pastel work made on paper that was then mounted on aluminum. Rego saw a photo in the Guardian newspaper at the beginning of the Iraq war and she wanted to recreate it. She wanted to recreate it as it was but yet she found it hard to draw the faces of those people in the photo. So, she decided to replace the people's heads with bunny heads because it brought some light heartedness onto what was a terrifying photograph. I think this piece of artwork really helps the viewer understand how terrifying it must have been living in Iraq at the time of the war.
Bunnies are usually scared of most things and run away when they do not feel safe, so I think that this specific animal was great to help portray her message. Also no matter what animal she could've chosen, they were still  animals. This is very powerful because usually citizens are not taken care for or protected during war. Citizens can be as meaningless as a small little bunny. The main bunny (inferred to be the mother), is surrounded by three other bunnies. They have a young feel to them and cling to their mother. The mother is doing all she can to protect her children from the penguin in the back. The penguin in the back seems to be trying to throw something past their direction but the mother is blocking it. Overall, I think this piece was great to resemble the pain that Rego must have felt when seeing the horrific photograph.