A Creative Collision Between Artist and Playwright
The Paula Rego McDonagh series emerged from an unexpected connection between painter Paula Rego and playwright Martin McDonagh. After seeing one of his brutal, emotionally charged plays, Rego wrote to McDonagh for permission to name her new artworks after his story. Soon, an almost playful exchange of letters unfolded. This correspondence pushed Rego into one of the most imaginative phases of her late career.
Stories That Matched Rego’s Own Darkness
By then, Rego was a celebrated artist with a lifetime of confronting harsh realities. She immediately recognized parallels between McDonagh’s disturbing narratives and her own creative instincts. She noted that the mix of cruelty, humour, and emotional brutality in his writing felt familiar. It echoed the raw, unfiltered stories of her youth in Portugal. This affinity became the foundation for the Paula Rego McDonagh series, translating unsettling fiction into vivid visual drama.
Building the Scenes: Dolls, Props, and Imagination
During the years the Paula Rego McDonagh series took shape, Rego developed a unique method. She constructed elaborate scenes in her studio before painting them. With the help of her assistant, Lila Nunes—who often posed—Rego built theatrical worlds using life-size dolls, puppets, and props. These figures, called bonecos, carried emotional weight and brought McDonagh’s surreal characters to life.
Many of these bonecos are preserved today. They provide rare insight into her process and appear in current exhibitions alongside the paintings. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/stage
Stories That Hit Personal Nerves
Of the dozens of tales McDonagh sent, four deeply resonated with Rego. One disturbing story featured a forest filled with the cries of unborn children. It made Rego confront memories of her own traumatic backstreet abortions as a young art student. In her paintings, she replaced the forest with domestic spaces: a woman slumped in a bathroom, a mother holding a baby over abortion remnants.
These works became linked to her activism. During campaigns to legalize abortion in Portugal, the paintings reflected both artistic invention and personal pain. The Paula Rego McDonagh series thus merges creativity with lived experience.
Symbols of Loss, Fear, and Burden
Another key piece from the series depicts a cow-skulled scarecrow looming over a pig’s severed head. This shocking image symbolizes grief over her family’s financial collapse, the loss of their estate, and childhood memories of a beloved pig. The scarecrow, inspired partly by McDonagh’s writing, embodies helplessness, guilt, and family burdens.
Perhaps the most mysterious painting features a man with turtles for hands. Rego never explained it fully, but her son believes it represents emotional burdens—creatures that weigh you down yet remain inseparable.
A Dynamic Exchange That Shaped Masterpieces
The Paula Rego McDonagh series reflects a burst of creativity over several years. It produced numerous pastels, prints, and preparatory objects. McDonagh, amazed at how deeply Rego connected with his old stories, even imagined a picture book collaboration. Though it never happened, both recognized the uniqueness of their creative bond.
For Rego’s admirers, the series stands among her boldest works. It merges personal history, emotional trauma, political anger, and the unsettling power of narrative.
