Thresholds is curated by the artist Paula Rego and is the fourth in a series of British Council Collection exhibitions at the newly restored Whitechapel Gallery in East London.
She has delved deep into the Collection to curate an exhibition of over 50 works dating from the start of the 20th century, most of them works on paper - prints, drawings and photographs. Beginning with the work of Sickert and his unvarnished depictions of bedroom encounters in north London, the exhibition includes nudes by Gwen John and Wyndham Lewis, rarely seen early photographs by Cecil Beaton, scurrilous watercolours by Edward Burra, Graham Sutherland's wartime gouaches of tin mining in Cornwall and Lucian Freud's etchings of young girls.
 In discussing her selection, Paula Rego explained that many of her choices seem to be about people being on the brink of something - adolescence, sexual encounters, growing up, growing old, or falling off the cliff. The narrative and biographical traits in Rego's own work are also echoed in her selection, from Hockney's illustrations of the Brothers Grimm's fairytales to the photographs of Madame Yevonde, one of the pioneers of colour photography in Britain.
Known for her complex paintings that unfashionably tell tales, Paula Rego weaves complex narratives around themes common to all of us: birth, death, love, sex. She tells these stories with unmitigated glee, and in this exhibition some of her zest and relish comes through in her choice of works. Pulling works out of the Collection which have rarely been seen before, Rego has stayed true to her heart, placing her personal and highly individual stamp on the British Council Collection.
Paula Rego is one of the leading figurative artists working today, producing richly imaginative art rooted in evocative memories, fantasy and literature. Born in Portugal she now lives and works in London. Rego was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995. A new museum dedicated exclusively to her work, La Casa das Histórias, opened in Cascais, nr Lisbon, Portugal in September 2009.
You can view the works included in Thresholds by visiting our Collection website
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