A espera - from the portfolio "Dez Artistas de Pernambuco"

Tereza Costa Rego

The Brazilian portfolio Dez Atistas de Pernambuco was published by the Pernambuco government in 1987. It was a means to highlight ten artists of the region, many of whom were established as major contributors to the Modern Brazilian Figurative movement. Rego herself had become a well-recognized painter and printmaker whose first solo show took place at the age of twenty at the Museo do Estado Pernambuco.

Though little information on Rego’s career is readily available in the United States, partially due to her activities as a Communist and mid-century feminist, she is among the most important artists in modern Brazilian history. In addition to her work in fine art, she was also the director of the Olinda Regional Museum and the Museum of the State of Pernambuco. Her exhibitions took her to Paris, Lisbon, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Here, she shows with surreal humor a nude from the back, facing a window that looks out onto a wintery forest. Startlingly, the looming faces of a girl and two cats peer inward; the girl wears a grin. The unusual perspective makes it seem as though we are observing the inside of a racy diorama, tittered at by a secretive young witness.