The monumentality and psychological drama of Paula Rego's paintings have established her as one of the most important figurative painters of her generation. Her first retrospective exhibition in London in 1988, which brought together a range of her dramatically simplified paintings of the ambiguous relationships between men, women and children, sent shock waves through the art scene on both sides of the Atlantic. Rego's view of the world as expressed in her work is a particularly female one. Germaine Greer has written of her: 'It is not often given to women to recognize themselves in painting, still less to see their private world, their dreams, the insides of their heads, projected on such a scale and so immediately, with such depth and colour.' In Rego's words, it was the turn of the dog to tell its story and her powerful images explore the obsessions and fears of childhood which have helped form her adult vision. Born in Portugal in 1935, Rego has worked in Britain since 1976 and