Art World Helps Paula Rego Fight Threat to Her Studio

LONDON—A number of leading art world figures are rallying around Paula Rego as she fights a development that she believes will threaten her ability to work in her Camden Town studio, the Evening Standard reports. The threat comes from a planning application submitted for flats on the roof of a garage next to her studio. Rego says the increased height of the building would restrict the natural light that floods her space.

Among her supporters are sculptor Anthony Caro and Tate director Nicholas Serota, who has called on the Camden council to dismiss the application. Rego, who has worked in the space since 1993, said, "I have seen the plans and they will affect my light, casting a shadow across my work area. It will change the way I work...It will affect what I can create."

Nino De Angelis, the garage owner who submitted the application, said the flats will not go up now, as he would have to close his garage for a year in order to do so. But, he added, he might like to sell the property when he retires, and has been advised that permission for flats upstairs will make it more valuable.