Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973
The Minotaur
INV-2795
Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881-1973June 24, 1933
The Minotaur
Pablo Picasso Spanish, 1881-1973 →Cubismpen and ink drawingsdrawings (visual works)
Date
June 24, 1933
Medium
Pen and brush and black ink and brush and gray wash on blue wove paper
Dimensions
48 × 63 cm (18 15/16 × 24 13/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Margaret Day Blake Collection
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.
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