The ghostly worlds of Goya and Paula Rego

Tim Smith-Laing | Apollo | 18th October 2024

Paula Rego admired Goya’s sometimes baffling, sometimes terrifying images. With both artists having a dark side, an exhibition showing them side by side should be interesting. Well, maybe. Some Rego works are “marvellously grotesque” in portraying the cruelty found in children’s rhymes. However, Goya’s prints conjure a world of “monstrous dreams” and are altogether more disturbing. Says one writer, Rego “ends up being no more than Goya’s foil, pointing up the satanic majesty of his imagination”.