Nick Willing on Paula Rego

Nick Willing on Paula Rego

From Talk Art by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament

April 16, 2026 · 1h 15m · Season 27 · Episode 9

About this episode

Robert meets Nick Willing to discuss a major exhibition of drawings by Paula Rego, exploring her artistic evolution and storytelling through art.

Robert meets Nick Willing at the studio of his mother Paula Rego (1935–2022) to discuss a major exhibition of drawings and works on paper by Rego, opening this week at Victoria Miro in London.  The most comprehensive exhibition of Rego’s drawings to date, Story Line  features works from the 1950s until the artist’s death, shining new light on Rego’s evolving use of line in media from pen and ink to pastel, conté, charcoal and pencil, and how it was driven by her unique approach to storytelling throughout her life. The exhibition is accompanied by a new book written by the artist’s son, Nick Willing. ‘When you write your story… invention comes when you do a drawing. As you are drawing something, it very often turns into something else, and you can go with it. It develops in a completely different way, it’s organic and it’s done with the hand. The hand makes it change and so on.’ – Paula Rego, The White Review, 2011 Paula Rego considered herself first and foremost a ‘drawrer’ (her word). From political protest to personal introspection, activism to domestic power games, subversive humour to challenging family relationships, it was through drawing that she understood…

People in this episode

Hosts: Robert Diament, Russell Tovey

Guest: Nick Willing

Topics covered

  • Paula Rego
  • art exhibition
  • drawing techniques
  • storytelling in art
  • artistic evolution

Keywords

  • Paula Rego
  • Nick Willing
  • art exhibition
  • drawing
  • Victoria Miro
  • storytelling
  • art techniques

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Victoria Miro

Books & works: Story Line

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