Portugal celebrates today national mourning for the death of painter Paula Rego
According to gallery owner Rui Brito, who represents the work of Portugal, the ceremony in London will be “very private, reserved today only for family and closest friends”.
When the date of the funeral was announced, the Government confirmed that the national day of mourning took place today.
“Under the terms of the decree approved by the Council of Ministers on June 8, the Government announces that the day of national mourning for the death of Paula Rego will be marked on June 30, the date on which the artist’s funeral takes place, as indicated. by the artist’s family”, read a statement released by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers on June 21.
The text justifies that “Paula Rego was a major Portuguese artist, with an unavoidable work recognized in the national and international artistic scene, leaving a unique legacy that will last forever in the history of the plastic arts”.
One of the most acclaimed and awarded Portuguese artists internationally, Paula Rego died on the morning of June 8, at home, with her children.
Born on January 26, 1935, in Lisbon, she studied it in the 1960s at the Slade School of Art, in London, where she settled permanently from the 1970s, after marrying the painter Victor Willing (1928-1988), but with regular visits to Portugal.
In 2009, a museum was opened to house part of Paula Rego’s work, Casa das Histórias, in Cascais, which has organized an exhibition of her work and in dialogue with other artists.
The artist was awarded, among others, the Turner Prize in 1989 and the Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso Grand Prix in 2013.
She was distinguished, in Portugal, with the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada in 2004 and, in the United Kingdom, with the Order of the British Empire by Queen Isabel II in 2010, who awarded her the title of Dame, for the their contribution to the arts.
In 2019, he received the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Government of Portugal.
The Portuguese Government declared national mourning for the death of the painter Paula Rego on the day of her funeral, a tribute approved by the Council of Ministers on 8 June.
For his part, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, announced, on June 10, in London, that he will award the posthumous title to the painter Paula Rego with the Grand Necklace of the Order of Camões, a distinction that will be formally awarded in Lisbon. .
AG/TDI (JPS) // LIL