AH 401 Gender, Art & Western Culture Compendium: Fall 2020

Paula Rego, The Abortion Pastels: Untitled No. 1. (1999)

         The postmodern to contemporary era was just a starting point for women in the art world. Beginning primarily in the 1960’s, the postmodern era, artists began to explore the idea of creating pieces that emphasize and connect to current societal issues. One artist in particular used her work to stress the importance of the woman’s body and the rights and choices she should have. Paula Rego, currently 85 years old, was born in 1935 in Lisbon, Portugal and is frequently known for her visual works which shed light on important female struggles; in this case, abortion. 

         At the time, Portugal was a predominantly a facist Catholic country under the rule of dictator Salazar. As a result of the alliance of church and state, there were strict laws against abortion with only very few exceptions made. It was shortly after the 1998 referendum to legalize abortion in Portgula had failed that Rego began creating her own series, Untitled: The Abortion Pastels. Rego was angry and upset at the idea that so many individuals refused to vote and challenge the status quo. She was able to take her emotions and in the span of about 6 months, between 1998 and 1999, Rego created a series of ten paintings that depicted women having to undergo their own “illegal” abortion. In fact, Rego hoped that exhibiting her paintings in Portgual would reopen the debate about abortion. While there were ten pieces in the series, the focus for this analysis is on Rego’s piece, Untitled No. 1 (1999). 
         Rego’s first piece of the series, Untitled No. 1 (1999), portrays an individual woman who has either just gone through an abortion or is planning to. In the painting, a young woman can be seen sitting on what seems to be a makeshift bed or cot; her legs are up on the bed, holding them open, but her nightgown is so carefully placed that it drapes right over the area between her legs.  The woman can be seen with a red scarf or bandana wrapped around her head, which was popular for women and homemakers to wear, pointing again to the domesticity and even youngness of the woman. There is one carefully decorated bowl in the corner of the bed, possibly pointing out once again that many of these women had to go through these procedures alone and  in the home. Two other large basins are placed on the floor in front of her, presumably for the purpose of the procedure. Sitting atop of a small blanket on the bed, the woman can be seen with a sort of strong stare that is almost as if she is using her eyes to beg the audience for help to emphasize womens’ struggles. While not necessarily physically showing emotions, her gaze depicts pain, agony, fear, but more importantly, a sense of strength. 
         Paula Rego recognizes that abortion is a sensitive subject for many, which is why she chose to avoid painting any type of bloody or graphic scene. One of the Rego’s main goal of the Abortion Series, was to bring attention to the importance of legal abortions and safety risks of doing so illegally. Originally, Rego wanted to paint the full frontal view of the woman in Untitled No. 1, but she was worried that the more vivid and gore the painting depicted, the less people would want to view the art and therefore miss the point of her series. This was a big concern for Rego throughout her series, however, she continued to portray the challenges woman had to go through to be able to have an abortion at that time. 

         Similarly to the other paintings in the series, Triptych, for example, is a three panel piece each portraying a different woman going through the agonizing pain of their at-home abortion that they had to do themselves. The first piece shows an individual female on a roll away cot. Like Untitled No. 1, there is again a large basin placed below her bed next to a chair. The woman is curled up into a ball, possibly from the excruciating pain of the procedure. In the next piece over, there is another individual woman laying on her back, again on a cot. She is holding her legs open and there is a slight shadow of red which could possibly be viewed as some sort of bleeding. Finally, the last panel depicts an individual woman squatting over the similar basin seen in other pieces. There is a big velvet chair and once again, another cot. In each piece of her series, there is an individual woman depicting the danger and pain of a self at-home abortion. It is interesting to see that in each piece there is only one woman, perhaps symbolizing the idea that many women are often alone in this process out of shame, guilt, or even fear of possible punishment. In fact, the law at the time stated that both the pregnant woman undergoing the abortion and those whole help (i.e. nurse), could be sentenced to prison. A large emphasis of Rego’s abortion series is not only the extreme lengths women had to go to, but instead, they had to experience the process alone in a dangerous non-medical environmnent. 

         While the driving force of Rego’s abortion series was the failure of the 1998 Portuguese referendum. According to an article by Agnete Strøm, Paula Rego’s abortion pictures are “images of revenge against social injustice, of the triumph of will over circumstance”. From what we know, Rego’s herself did not experience an abortion, but gave birth to three children with her longtime husband. This being said, it shows something about Rego’s character and her will to represent and emphasize the importance of women’s rights and the availability and legality of proper abortion care. In an interview conducted in 2017, Rego’s describes the failure of the 1998 referendum as “total hypocrisy” that led to her feeling enraged and determined to make a change. Rego portrays many of the woman in her pieces as young school girls, hinting that the “need” for an abortion may come from something serious and traumatic, such as “rape, abuse, incest, [and the] power imbalanced sex between grown men and young girls (134)”. The young school girls, who for all intensive purposes was impregnated by grown male, being shown alone in the room going through the pain and dangerous procedure leads back to the deep-rooted issue of women as objects for men to do as they please before they “toss” them aside. 
        Paula Rego’s own identity is not necessarily vital to understanding the analysis of her Abortion series. Instead, it is her passion, drive, and hard work that she put into these pieces that make them so influential and symbolic. In fact, a second referendum was officially passed in 2007 that allowed women to receive abortions legally, under the care of a medical profession. Not only was Rego was able to achieve her goal of aiding the legalization of abortions, but she also shined a light on the importance of a woman’s right to choose, especially as society continues to grow. 
 

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