Her beautiful dark twisted fantasy
This is perhaps the most unsettling work in Paula Rego’s deeply unsettling series inspired by the would-be ballerina birds in Disney’s Fantasia.
Coming on strong
These aren’t the kind of professional sylphs who contort their bodies on stage. Rego’s women have the muscular arms and bulging thighs of dockworkers, and their careworn, craggy features and physical heft are emphasised by her relentless, strong, black line.
Daydream believer?
They avert their eyes from us and one another, lost in reveries; perhaps of the youth and beauty associated with the leotard and the tutu.
Pink stinks
Their meaty power, however, is undercut by the black frills and girlish pink ribbons. The traditional costumes of an art form that is a symbol for the control of female bodies look absurd, but so do the women wearing them.
Mystery woman
Furthermore, the question of “freakishness” is brazenly raised by the truncated body on the left, which recalls an analogous figure in Velázquez’s Las Meninas. Rego’s pastel fantasy world is similarly mysterious and open-ended, refusing to offer easy answers to the difficult questions it raises about women’s bodies and role play’s potential for both freedom and oppression.
Marlborough Fine Art, W1, to 12 Nov
