There and Back Again is the title of the first solo exhibition in Germany of the work of Paula Rego (1935-2022), which opened to the public on 30 October in Kestner Gesellschaft, in Hanover, and can be visited until January 2023.

The exhibition’s title comes from the ballet Pra lá e pra cá (There and Back Again), composed in the 1990s by Louisa Lasdun and which, in turn, was inspired by Paula Rego’s Nursery Rhyme prints. The ballet was first performed in 1998 at the Gulbenkian Foundation by the now-defunct Gulbenkian Ballet, with costumes designed by the painter.

Curated by Alistair Hicks and Adam Budak and with architecture by Didier Fiúza Faustino, the exhibition develops like an opera on the human condition, in a series of acts and centred on the piece Crivelli’s Garden. It brings together around 80 works by the artist, including paintings, drawings, prints and costumes.

The CAM – Modern Art Centre is participating in this exhibition with the loan of two of Rego’s works: Angel – a painting recently acquired for the Collection – and Time – Past and Present, both from the 1990s.