Paula Rego is one of the most celebrated and problematic artists currently working in Britain. She has continually renewed her practice, which has included the cut, paste and painted collages of the 1950s and 60s, the animal pictures of the 80s which developed into the more grounded grand compositions, the large pastels through to the present obsessive fixation with working directly from the observed experience, in order to delve into her imagination.

While many contemporary artists, especially women, have embraced new media and processes to discover a personal visual language, Rego has steadfastly engaged herself within the complexities of traditional practice, seeking to take on the challenge of painting. Parallel to this, she has produced a profound body of work as a printmaker in which once again she works within established modes of practice, in her case predominantly intaglio and more recently lithography. Her prints shadow the changes and innovations within her practice as a painter, while always retaining an exploration of the very special qualities of light and dark that is particular to the medium.

Her pressing concern is to tell a story, everything else is subordinate to this end. Storytelling places the emphasis on the narrator who can reinvent the story afresh for each telling. In this oral tradition, meaning is not fixed in the manner of the written text, but reframed each time, often in direct response to the listener. In her work and with particular reference to her prints, Rego, recalling and revisiting her childhood, takes on the role of the narrator herself. She invents her own stories, freely interprets existing ones and delights in the telling and retelling.