House of Stories Paula Rego: A Monographic Museum

This lecture will introduce Casa das Histórias Paula Rego by its chief curator Catarina Alfaro. The “House of Stories” is a museum located in Cascais, Portugal, which exhibits over 50 years worth of Paula Rego’s work as an artist, as well as several pieces by her late husband Victor Willing. The permanent exhibition in this museum is constructed on a rotational basis. Casa das Histórias was designed by architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, who helped fulfill Rego’s vision and wish of a “fun, lively and also a little bit mischievous” museum. Souto de Moura created one of the most extraordinary buildings worldwide. It consists of two carmine-colored pyramid shaped towers which create a drastic contrast to the trees in the surrounding environment, thus generating a purposeful paradox of “manmade (artificial components) vs nature”.

Catarina Alfaro (Lisbon, 1973) holds a degree in Art History from the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2000), and a Master in Museology and Heritage from the same institution (2009). Her main focus of research are themes of modern and contemporary art in its articulation with the study of museum collections (documentation and exhibition).  Between 2001 and 2010 she collaborated with the Modern Art Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation as a researcher and co-authored Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso’s catalogue raisonné: Amadeo de Sousa-Cardoso: A Photobiography (1887-1918). In that period she co-curated several exhibitions on Amadeo’s work, among them: Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso – Avant-garde Dialogues, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (2006-2007); Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887–1918): Ein Pionier aus Portugal, Ernst Barlach Haus, Hamburg (2007-2008). From 2011 to 2014 she was Chief Curator at Casa das Histórias Paula Rego and since then she is the Coordinator of Programming and Conservation of Casa das Histórias, assuming the curatorship of the museum exhibitions, as well as the edition of the catalogues.  In recent years, she has focussed her research on the work of Paula Rego in all its singularities, investigating different periods or specific techniques of the artist’s vast production, its relationship with other cultural universes (literature, history) or her main references in Art History.