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history of western arts and culture analysis
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Name: Romaissa DahriStudent number: 743187
Course(code):CC1001 History of western arts and culture
Teacher: A. Niutta
Wordcount: 553 (excluding reference list and title)
Picked artwork: Paula Rego, Triptych (from the Abortion Series), 1998. Lakeland Arts –
Abbot Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Kendal.
Paula Rego's Triptych: A Realist Critique of Abortion-laws and
Power.
Triptych (1998) by Paula Rego is an important socio-political artwork
that shows just how painful and traumatising abortions can be for women
who undergo illegal abortions. Rego is a Portuguese-born artist who was
raised under the authoritarian-era Estado Novo. This series reflects a great
deal on her own experience with political oppression, as well as a blend of
feminism and personal memoir. Rego argues fiercely against the
Portuguese government for not having introduced legal abortion since the
1998 referendum (Monteiro, 2020). Although she was educated at the
Slade School of Fine Art in London, where modernism was the most
popular style, Rego consistently resisted abstraction, opting instead to use
figurative art as a means of directly engaging with human and social
issues. In Triptych,
Rego focuses on realism to depict real women experiencing historical pain.
She infuses each figure with surrealist elements, adding depth to the
emotional and psychological layers of the work. This highlights both
internal and external suffering, reflecting how these experiences resonate
within and beyond the individual. The design of the triptych is usually used
for historical religious altarpieces. Rego uses this format, using its religious
overtones to criticize the Catholic Church’s influence, particularly in
shaping Portuguese policies on abortion (Anthony, 2022). Through this,
Rego challenges the moral authority religious institutions hold over
women's bodies. Triptych is divided into three panels, each showing a
woman at a different stage of the abortion process: before, during, and
after. The women’s postures, contorted in pain and isolation, capture both
the physical suffering and the emotional toll of illegal abortions.
Stylistically, Triptych bears a strong connection to social realism, a
movement known for addressing issues of class struggle, labour, and
social injustice. Like artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Rego portrays women
as resilient but oppressed figures, their suffering shaped by social
structures beyond their control. Rego’s women are not passive victims,
instead they are caught in the crossfire of a political and religious system
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