New releases from Ibex Band, Lucy Dacus, and Various Artists
Riveted by Rego's realm
Visceral, confrontational and emotionally charged, the retrospective of scenarios by the great Portuguese artist transfixes JAN WOOLF

Paula Rego
Tate Britain, London
FIGURATIVE art has become fashionable again, apparently.
Yet the extraordinary Paula Rego probably couldn’t care less. Pushing on through the fashionable Young British Artists era of the 1980s, she has always drawn and painted what she needed to.
Born in Portugal in 1935, she was brought to England by parents opposed to the fascist Salazar regime — God, Homeland and Family was one of its guiding slogans and the Female Portuguese Youth was set up to train girls for domesticity.
More from this author

JAN WOOLF relishes a book of poetry that deploys the energy of political struggle, rooted in post-war working class history and culture

JAN WOOLF marvels at a rich brew of steam-punk Victoriana, homosexual scandal, and contemporary reference

JAN WOOLF ponders the images of humanity that emerge from the tormented, destructive process of the Kindertransport survivor Frank Auerbach

JAN WOOLF savours the essays of Hilary Mantel: high calorific brain food that slips down nicely