Curator

  • Art Institute Chicago
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A work made of pen and brush and black ink and brush and gray wash on blue wove paper.

The Minotaur

June 24, 1933

Pablo Picasso Spanish, 1881-1973

Spain

This violent drawing captures a half-man, half-bull Minotaur raping a woman. The figure of the Minotaur dates back to Greek mythology: it inhabited a labyrinth, devoured innocent people, and was ultimately slain by the hero Theseus. In the 1930s, when Picasso made this work, people understood the Minotaur as a manifestation of unconscious and uncontrolled desire. Despite the horror of such imagery, the beast in some ways may have embodied Picasso’s own self-perception as a womanizer.

Pen and brush and black ink and brush and gray wash on blue wove paper

Prints and Drawings