9Tessa Solomon
May 3, 2022
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The linked issues of women’s rights and abortion rights are no stranger to the art world, which has always had artists, curators, and others use their practice and platform for the activist battle.
Beginning in 1989, Portuguese artist Paula Rego responded to a failed referendum to legalize abortion in her home country with Abortion (1989-1999), a series of pastel paintings on the consequences of restricting safe abortion access. Her unflinching depictions of women contorted in pain were so affecting, it was cited as swaying public opinion for Portugal’s second, successful referendum in 2007.