Embassy of Portugal and Camões Institute Bring Paula Rego’s Powerful Retrospective to Museum Folkwang
“The Personal and The Political” presents over 120 works by the celebrated artist, on view until September 7
August 12th, 2025
Opened on May 16, The Personal and The Political at Museum Folkwang in Essen brings together more than 120 paintings and drawings by Paula Rego, the acclaimed artist known for her striking, often unsettling depictions of power structures, gender roles, and social injustice.
Tracing Rego’s artistic journey from her studies at London’s Slade School in the 1950s to the first decade of the 21st century, the exhibition highlights works in which seemingly private, intimate moments are transformed into images of collective experience. The title draws from the feminist motto “the personal is political,” reflecting how Rego’s art politicizes the private sphere in ways reminiscent of the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Following solo exhibitions of Maria Lassnig, Joan Mitchell, Nancy Spero, and Helen Frankenthaler, Museum Folkwang now turns its attention to Paula Rego—another essential and unmistakable figure in late 20th-century painting.
Supported by the Embassy of Portugal and the Camões Berlin Centro Cultural Português, The Personal and The Political offers a rare and comprehensive look at Rego’s oeuvre. Visitors have until September 7 to experience this powerful and thought-provoking retrospective.
