User:Explorer of the unknown/sandbox

Rego began the series of ten pastels known as Untitled: The Abortion Pastels, in July of 1998. Rego completed this over a period of approximately six months ending in February of 1999. The referendum aimed to legalize abortions, but the law was not passed. Rego expressed a feeling of rage and pointed out the “total hypocrisy” of the outcome. The pastels show images of women in various positions, such as fetal, squatting, etc., either getting ready to have an abortion, in the process of having one, or in pain from the procedure. In a 2002 interview Rego stated:

“The series was born from my indignation… It is unbelievable that women who have an abortion should be considered criminals. It reminds me of the past… I cannot abide the idea of blame in relation to this act. What each woman suffers in having to do it is enough. But all this stems from Portugal’s totalitarian past, from women dressed up in aprons, baking cakes like good housewives. In democratic Portugal today there is still a subtle form of oppression… The question of abortion is part of all that violent context.”

Rego uses two typical tropes of Western art history: “the gaze” and “the reclining nude.” Rego utilizes “the gaze” in conscious ways to challenge the viewer by having the woman or girl look directly at the viewer or away in agony or closing her eyes in pain. The “reclining nude brings up that push and pull between sexual attraction, the act of sex and the physical outcomes like pregnancy and miscarriage that occur as a result of sex.