Dame Paula Rego

In 2004, a retrospective of painter Paula Rego’s work at the Serralves museum in Porto was forced to keep its doors open 24 hours a day to accommodate demand from visitors.

Now, more than 15 years later Tate Britain prepares to open the largest and most comprehensive UK showcase of her life to date and it’s safe to say that there’s a substantial buzz around an exhibition that will feature more than 100 works, including collage, paintings, large-scale pastels, ink-and-pencil drawings, etchings and sculpture.

“This is my life’s dream,” says curator Elena Crippa of compiling this collection. “I keep hearing how excited everyone is – colleagues at Tate and beyond. I really feel this retrospective is so overdue and so needed. The number of people who tell me that they have stories about Paula – whether as a