Pablo Picasso: La Minotauromachie: All VIII States

This book was published on the occasion of Pablo Picasso: La Minotauromachie: All VIII States at Gagosian, Davies Street, London. Inaugurating the Mayfair gallery in 2006, the exhibition featured the only complete set in existence of all eight states of Picasso’s famous etching La Minotauromachie (1935), including one printed in color. Widely regarded as one of the most important prints of the twentieth century, La Minotauromachie combines Picasso’s central themes of the minotaur, bullfights, love, death, creation, and destruction.

The catalogue includes full-page reproductions for each state of the etching, allowing for close comparisons between them. An essay by Marie-Laure Bernadac recounts the emergence of the enigmatic work and offers interpretations of it based on analysis of Picasso’s life and career. As she notes, “Picasso never transcribed the legend of the Minotaur; rather, identifying himself with it, he made him into the allegory of his own contradictory and antagonistic feelings and emotions.” The resulting image engages with the power of myth and prefigures the epic composition of Guernica (1937).