Picasso 1926-1939: From Minotaur to Guernica
focuses on a key phase of transition in Picasso's art, from his numerous depictions of the Minotaur myth in the late 1920s and early 1930s to his majestic and tragic 1937 masterpiece, “Guernica.” The Minotaur, contained in a labyrinth where it was fed Athenian youths, serves in part as a metaphor for destructive bestial drives under containment, but in Picasso's works on the theme, the Minotaur is set free into the world, where it frequently finds itself stumbling and dumbstruck. This expression of destructive drives finally culminates in the terrible aerial bombing recorded in “Guernica.”
From Minotaur to Guernica
is authored by Catalan poet Josep Palau i Fabre (1917-2008), one of the artist's earliest admirers and experts, who has made several close analyses of other phases in Picasso's prolific career. The volume is housed in a printed slipcase.