Paula Rego was initially wary of working at the National Gallery, which she saw as a male bastion. But this show shines, says Laura Gascoigne

Paula Rego was initially wary of working at the National Gallery, which she saw as a male bastion. But this show shines, says Laura Gascoigne

When National Gallery curator Colin Wiggins invited Paula Rego to be the gallery’s associate artist in 1989, with privi- leged access to the collection and a studio in the building, she initially said no. The National Gallery, she argued, was a masculine collection and as a woman she could find nothing in it of interest. Although a regular visitor to the gallery since her student days more than 30 years earlier, the Old Masters had always made her feel uncomfortable. But the following week she reversed her decision: a masculine collection, she now figured, would give a woman artist plenty of material to chew on.

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