Dame Paula Rego R.A.

(1935-2022)

Death Goes Shopping (Unique Stage Proofs), 2010

Footnotes

Literature
T. G. Rosenthal, Paula Rego the complete graphic work, Thames and Hudson, London, 2012, no. 277.

Dame Paula Rego was invited by Enitharmon Editions as one of the five selected artists to contribute to the deluxe portfolio 'I Have Found a Song', commissioned by the Arts Council England in 2010 to mark the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

"Death Goes Shopping is an etching telling a story that I dreamt up. I drew everything from a set that I made. I had been to see an exhibition in Antwerp, and there they have the most beautiful lace dresses you can imagine. I bought a lot of them. It struck me that they were like little bridal gowns, and when I got back to my studio in London I made some dolls and put the dresses on them. I made up a story that they were kept in chains and that they were going to be sold: marketed and loaded onto a cart, like chickens, by a nasty woman representing Death".
(Dame Paula Rego)

Each of these five stage proofs is unique. They show graphically the printmaking process from beginning to end, each stage displaying a new development in etching and inking, with the additional application of aquatint and spit-bite. For this print Paula Rego worked intensively at Paupers Press in London with the master printmaker Simon Marsh. Each of the stage proofs has been signed. As a set they represent an unparalleled opportunity to acquire in physical form the imaginative workings of a major artist.
(Enitharmon Editions, London)