Lot 161
  • 161

PAULA REGO | Island of the Lights from Pinocchio

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Paula Rego
  • Island of the Lights from Pinocchio
  • pencil, ink and watercolour on paper
  • 148 by 179.5 cm. 58 1/4 by 70 5/8 in.
  • Executed in 1996.

Provenance

Marlborough Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Portugal
Sotheby's, London, 9 February 2006, Lot 22
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

New York, Marlborough Gallery, Paula Rego, New Work, December 1996 - January 1997
London, Tate Britain, All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life, February - August 2018, p. 191, illustrated in colour

Literature

Carlo Collodi, As Aventuras de Pinóquio, História de um Boneco, Lisbon 2004, pp. 172-73, illustrated in colour; pp. 161, 165, 168 and 169, illustrated in colour (details)

Condition

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the pink tones are deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Each vertical edge is unevenly cut and there are artist's pinholes in all four corners. The sheet undulates slightly. Very close inspection reveals some minute spots of paper skinning and light handling in places to the extreme edges of the sheet, which are only visible when inspected out of its frame, and some minute media accretions and light scuff marks in isolated places throughout. Close inspection reveals two historic tears; one towards the lower left hand corner and one towards the centre of the right hand edge, both of which have been stabilised by the linen back lining and neither of which fluoresce when examined under ultra violet light.
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Catalogue Note

Having developed her highly original visual language over several decades, Paula Rego revived her childhood memories in search of inspiration for a series of works made in conjunction with the prestigious Spellbound: Art and Film exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. As one of the few works that the artist made based on the Walt Disney cartoons of Pinocchio, Snow White and Fantasia, the present work is an excellent example of Rego’s fascination with popular mythology, as well as her unique artistic vocabulary. Growing up in Portugal before moving to London to study at the Slade School of Art, Rego has always been fascinated by the world of Walt Disney. The mesmerising but terrifying stories she watched in the cinema with her grandmother were embedded in the artist’s memory from a young age. Rego’s mature work explores these familiar sources, not as illustrations, but as ambiguous and psychologically charged sets that are left for the viewer to decipher. This is characteristic of the artist's original practice, where the absence of a clear narrative is often balanced with interpretative suggestions.

In Island of the Lights from Pinocchio, Rego has chosen a pivotal and dramatic development in the adventures of Pinocchio. On Pleasure Island, a popular holiday destination in the story, a malevolent spell transforms young boys into donkeys, who are then sold off to work in the salt mines. Capturing the drama of this metamorphosis and the struggle of its protagonists, Rego has employed a dynamic compositional structure dominated by a stark black and white contrast. The tumultuous combat that ensues in the tale is depicted with Rego’s usual ambiguity – not suggesting the resolution of the struggle, but rather inviting contemplation over the dramatic moment.

Although Rego’s work depicts a chapter from a popular tale, the existential struggle of the story reflects the deeply serious concerns that the artist took on throughout her practice. Her fascination with Disney films is in fact largely due to the darker undercurrent that such stories represent behind their adventurous appearances. The epic fight between donkeys and children in Island of the Lights from Pinocchio has a long line of historical precedents, as images of the struggle between life and death have simultaneously frightened and fascinated people throughout the centuries.

By highlighting the existential undertone of the story of Pinocchio, Rego masterfully lays bare the venerable religious appearances of the tale. In its current manifestation as a fairy tale, hell is represented by a mine on the island – indeed reminiscent of the underworld in classical mythology. Moreover, the duality between humans and animals that is explored in the tumultuous battle, is reminiscent of age-old representations of the last judgement, and indeed of Hieronymus Bosch’s famous depictions of hell.

Island of the Lights from Pinocchio is therefore a highly emblematic work within Paula Rego’s oeuvre, which captures both her interest in popular mythologies and the dramatic existential battles they represent. The unique visual language of her drawings in ink and watercolour on paper, which she uses to avoid the formality of easel painting, is beautifully expressed in the present work, making it a subtle take on a story that has ingrained itself in our collective memories.