Paula Rego – Dance Among Thorns

The companion book to the show at the Munch Museum presenting Rego’s powerful and unsettling body of work in its full breadth.

British Portuguese Paula Rego (1935–2022) carved out her place in international art history with a self-possessed, uncompromising expression and a burning commitment to fighting oppression and lack of freedom. She grew up in Portugal under António de Oliveira Salazar’s dictatorship, which imposed strong constraints, especially on women’s freedom, and throughout her long career Rego dissected the relationship between gender, the body and power in a dark, fantastical visual language. At a time when authoritarian forces are on the rise across the world and women’s right to control their own bodies is under pressure, her images feel more relevant than ever.

The exhibition Paula Rego – Dance Among Thorns presents Rego’s powerful and unsettling body of work in its full breadth. The catalogue includes all works on display and a collection of new texts by the exhibition’s curator Kari J. Brandtzæg as well as by Catarina Alfaro, Isabel Freire and Jennifer Higgie.

Together, they sketch an intense and nuanced portrait of an artist who never ceased to challenge – whether aesthetically or politically.

Details

• Author: Heidi Bale Amundsen
• Hardcover: 256 pages | 150 colour illustrations
• Date published: May 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9788284620596
• Dimensions: 28.9 x 23.7 cm