Browsing by Author "Lisboa, Maria Manuel"

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Open Access
Essays on Paula Rego: Smile When You Think about Hell
(Open Book Publishers, 2019-09-24) Lisboa, Maria Manuel
In these powerful and stylishly written essays, Maria Manuel Lisboa dissects the work of Paula Rego, the Portuguese-born artist considered one of the greatest artists of modern times. Focusing primarily on Rego’s work since the 1980s, Lisboa explores the complex relationships between violence and nurturing, power and impotence, politics and the family that run through Rego’s art. Taking a historicist approach to the evolution of the artist’s work, Lisboa embeds the works within Rego’s personal history as well as Portugal’s (and indeed other nations’) stories, and reveals the interrelationship between political significance and the raw emotion that lies at the heart of Rego’s uncompromising iconographic style. Fundamental to Lisboa’s analysis is an understanding that apparent opposites – male and female, sacred and profane, aggression and submissiveness – often co-exist in Rego’s work in a way that is both disturbing and destabilising. This collection of essays brings together both unpublished and previously published work to make a significant contribution to scholarship about Paula Rego. It will also be of interest to scholars and students of contemporary painting, Portuguese and British feminist art, and the political and ideological aspects of the visual arts.
Open Access
The End of the World: Apocalypse and its Aftermath in Western Culture
(Open Book Publishers, 2011-09-20) Lisboa, Maria Manuel
Our fear of the world ending, like our fear of the dark, is ancient, deep-seated and perennial. It crosses boundaries of space and time, recurs in all human communities and finds expression in every aspect of cultural production – from pre-historic cave paintings to high-tech computer games. This book examines historical and imaginary scenarios of Apocalypse, the depiction of its likely triggers, and imagined landscapesin the aftermath of global destruction. Its discussion moves effortlessly from classic novels including Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, to blockbuster films such as Blade Runner, Armageddon and The Terminator. The author also takes into account religious doctrine, scientific research and the visual arts to create a penetrating, multi-disciplinarystudy that provides profound insight into one of Western culture’s darkest and most enduring preoccupations.