Untitled (The Abortion Series)

In 1998 Paula Rego executed a series of pastels triggered by the referendum in Portugal to review the law censoring legal abortion. Describing her feelings at the time she said: `I got angry because l'd seen it all in Portugal – the suffering that went on when abortion was totally illegal. It was mind-boggling. There is still much suffering' (quoted in: `Paula Rego interviewed by Edward King, February 2001', Celestina's House, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, p.11). Unusually for Rego, who never replicates her paintings in graphic form, she produced a series of etchings after the paintings, a political decision motivated by her desire to spread her strongly held convictions on this issue. Each of Rego's subjects is depicted alone, starkly framed by a non-descript interior setting. Avoiding any explicit display of blood or gore, the artist instead focuses the viewer's attention on the physical and mental anguish of the women. She said, ‘I tried to do it full frontal but I didn’t want to show ... anything to sicken, because people wouldn’t look at it then. And what you want to do is make people look ... make it agreeable, and in that way make people look at life’ (quoted in: Celestina’s House, p.11).