CHAPTER SIX: PICASSO AND THE MINOTAUR, His Snorting Inner Self
For many years Picasso had been using the Harlequin to represent images of his alter ego and his own brand of alchemical sorcery in his paintings but as time moved on into the later 1920’s Picasso searched for a new image to represent a more complex alter ego even deeper within him than the Harlequin had been. Picasso’s life was becoming intensely complicated as the years unraveled and he needed an image that would express all of these varied emotions and experiences he was having within his estranged and unhappy marriage with his wife Olga, with his lust for other women (most notably a seven-teen year old Marie-Therese) his friends, his dealers and even the most hidden and deepest thoughts of his own inner self and possibly even his own personal recognition and understanding of his own bestial nature which was always clearly shown in his own possessiveness of his women and in Picassos need to dominate all of the friends and family who were closest to him and also, and not to be forgotten his own self-considered tenderness to those wrapped up in the web and machinations of his life. Picasso needed to liberate himself from himself.
Picasso found this image in the legendary Minotaur, the ancient mythological half man and half beast born out of a savage conflict and betrayal of the gods by the ancient Cretan King Minos. The tale involves an overwhelming intoxicated female human lust for a pure white bull directed by the gods at Pasiphae (Minos’ wife) in order to pay back Minos for his betrayal of the god Neptune over the before mentioned white bull and then, after the consummation of beast and human, Minos’s own wife (Pasiphae) gives birth to an evil half man and half beast and then as quick as possible Minos uses this opportunity to his advantage by placing this monster child into a labyrinth and feeds the Minotaur human sacrifices, of his enemies and those who have transgressed Minos, in order to satiate its hunger and promote the reach of the Minoan power base. Not only was Minos able to keep the locals in check with the threat of the Minotaur Minos used the threat of his Labyrinth as a powerful negotiating tool for leverage on the nearby state of Athens whom Minos levied tribute upon because his oldest golden boy son Androgeous was killed by a mob of Athenian youth after losing an athletic contest to him. Minos demanded that the Athenians pay a heavy tribute to Crete by sending nine of their finest youth to Minos to be fed to the Minotaur every nine years in order to assuage his pain for the loss of his son. You can almost visualize the great political fathers of the city-state of Athens imagining if the death of their children was worth the blood spilled for the sake of good relations with the ruthless Minos and at the same time wondering how were they ever going to stop this monstrous death of their most elite youth and the future leaders of Athens.
How could Picasso go wrong with a metaphor like this, a metaphor of lust, betrayal, evil, a dark labyrinth and the sacrifice of humans to show tribute to Minoan power. Picasso indulged himself in all of these activities personally and I am sure he was impressed with the Minotaurs body of work.
Picasso’s use of the Minotaur represents, to me, the wicked side of our human nature, the lust of our human nature, the darkest part of our soul and his own identification with his intense longing for other women outside of his marriage, and a way to illustrate the tragic and brutal sense of the political world during the 1920’s and 1930’s. While the Minotaur is also half human it can represent tenderness in its relations with humans just before it devours them.
Throughout his life Picasso used his Art to thrust all of his emotions and thoughts onto the artifact itself. In this way he emptied out his vessel (himself) and left himself available for new experiences and emotions and he didn’t have to continue dwelling on the old ones. By following this method Picasso enhanced his opportunities to create more Art rather than dwell on the personal self-destructiveness of his labyrinth of emotions. In other words he had a lot of tumultuous situations to rid himself of and he thusly produced a lot of great Art.
Picasso used the Minotaur to re-invent and revitalize himself. Picasso could portray his bestial and sexual nature in the form of the Minotaur and not have to take complete responsibility for his actions. He could even stand back from this strange force within himself and reflect objectively on himself.
Picasso was born on the Mediterranean and was thoroughly connected with the admiration and the worship of the Bull. From a very early age the young Picasso drew and painted the Bull Fights in his hometown of Malaga. Mitriatic religion thrived in the Mediterranean and the religion not only represented a calendar of star events it also portrayed the God Perseus slaying the Bull. The Spanish Bullfighting legends are deeply rooted in Mithraism. In the ancient cult of Mithraism the story goes that the God Perseus sinks his blade into the Bull and the blood spilled by the sacrificial Bull is the source of all the creation in the Universe. Because Picasso was Catalan it was certainly categorical, to me, that he would go from the bull, to the bullfight and then from there to a heavy breathing Minotaur who represented his emotions. The Minotaur represents the multiple contrasted values that Picasso often found himself dealing with. Picasso was a tormentor of his women and often tried to hold them as near prisoners in his home but would at the same time see himself as a benevolent protector of the women who may or may not have appreciated his benevolence but they certainly appreciated being around him at least for a while.
The image of the Labyrinth also began to be seen, by Picasso, to express the nature of the world around him. The catastrophe of Europe and European civilization after the WWI, the catastrophe of his marriage to Olga and what to do about it, the catastrophe of living in a world being ruled by Fascists, his unbridled desire for a teen age Marie Therese and the need for a way to express these train wrecks within himself and his Art brought Picasso to the Minotaur to portray his deepest thoughts impersonally and it was a bountiful relationship for both of them.
Not only did Picasso use the Minotaur as a beast but he also used the Minotaur to express the experiences of his personal life. The Minotaur drawings became representations of the duality or even the total multiplicity of Picasso’s view of himself and all of the opposing parts of himself that he was fabricating together to BE himself as an artist. Picasso clearly opposed fascism but he also was well known as a social dictator by those around him and he must have known that and he must have known and been troubled about this duality in his own heart. Picasso saw both the horrific traits and the noble sensitivity of the Minotaur. Picasso saw the Minotaur as both a creator and a destroyer and sometimes as just another person in this journey of life.
Picasso also used the image of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth to look within himself and to represent his inner being and to set off on a journey and an exploration of his inner self and then to place his inner self within the pataphysical context of being the Minotaur. And in the end Picasso was able to find his true personal self again through the Minotaur metaphors. Freud once ruminated over the idea that the Labyrinth represented the most hidden parts of us and possibly even could represent our own unconscious natures. I am certain that Picasso felt this way as well.
The Bull is a symbol of the regenerating power of renewal, of new strengths and the affirmation of the potential of fertility in the coming springtime. The Bull is the Guardian of the legends of the living past and Picasso was the grand curator of the living and ancient past and the revolutionary future of Art.
Picasso began to use the image of himself as the Minotaur in such drawings in 1933 as “The Minotaur at Rest, Champagne ” and “Bacchanal with Minotaur” to show his own congenial self within the context of the Minotaur as his every day alter ego. And he used drawings like “Amorous Minotaur with a Female” to show his enhanced sense of lust for the female form after being with Marie-Therese. The Minotaur helped to clearly define the male and female of it all. Who was on top and who was on the bottom?
The “Minotauromachie” etching of 1935 is quite likely the greatest etching of the 20th Century. It is rather large for a print (19 inches by 28 inches) and the details in the work show a complete outpouring of all of Picasso’s masterful skills as an engraver. It should be noted that during 1935 and part of 1936 Picasso was not painting and he devoted his time to drawing, etching and automatic writing much in the style of the Surrealist poets.
In the etching a massively muscular Minotaur dominates the right quadrant of the piece. The Minotaur is stretching his right arm out to meet the left hand of a young maiden (Marie-Therese) who is holding a candle of light. The left hand of the Minotaur is placed upon his burly chest covering his heart. The young girl is holding out the light of innocence to the Minotaur to show him the way to Love and Peace within himself and Acceptance of his bestial nature and the Minotaur is moving towards the light. In between these two images is a dead female dressed as a woman matador who is lying on the back of a stumbling horse. This dead female represents, to me, the past so unhappy and conflicted female relationships Picasso had before he found Marie-Therese. Some critics even believe that the man climbing the ladder is Picasso the artist escaping his alter ego the Minotaur while the two women staring out from the window are Marie-Therese’s sisters passively looking on.
While war is brewing in Europe and with Hitler in complete control of Germany by 1935 and Benito Mussolini ensconced as the dictator of Italy the Minotaur image is allowing Picasso to come to grips with himself and with his Socio-Political nature. The Minotaur was leading Picasso out of his deep state of being a Revolutionary Artist that had been bestowed upon him before the First World War and into the necessity of becoming an Artist showing his social conscience again. What was old with Picasso was becoming new again with the help of the Minotaur
In the “Minotaur Moving House” you see the Minotaur pulling a cart with a weakened horse and her young colt. On the surface it appears as a representation of Picasso moving his mistress Marie-Therese and their daughter Maya to a new home. Or it could mean that Picasso was removing the spirit of Spain away from the military elite of the country. However, when asked, Picasso said it is only a bull and a horse and if you add any other meaning you are wrong.
The “Minotaur with Dead Mare in front of a Young Girl” shows the Minotaur carrying, in his arms, a dead horse out of the dark of a cave to the light. It is often said that Picasso used the mare to represent Spanish humanity and with the impending Spanish civil war he knew that the fascists would kill any bit of cultural humanity that was sacred to Picasso. But as Picasso said it is only a bull and only a horse and nothing else.
What is most important is that Picasso’s sense of social commitment to the world around him is becoming stronger and stronger. Picasso knows the world around him will soon force him out of his complete insular Artistic state into an Artist who must fight against Oppression in a more “real world” way. As time moved on into the late 1930’s Picasso was returning to his old Anarchistic social ways and ways I must remind you that he had not forgotten but ways he had internalized within his Art. In 1936 it was becoming apparent that now was the time to be entangled with History once again and Picasso had developed the tools, as a revolutionary artist, to make a difference. His weapons were not guns or bombs but his drawing pencils, his paintbrushes and his imagination.
As Picasso said, “Art is a Battlefield!”
In late summer of 1936 the Spanish Civil War had been raging on for a few months and Picasso was in turmoil over the safety of his mother, his sister and her family. The early fighting had been in Barcelona and Picasso’s sense of social justice was deeply stirred up along with his concern for his loved ones. But he was unable to let go of these bottled up feelings and express them in his Art.
In August of 1936 another harbinger of Picasso’s sense of social conscience came into his life. Dora Marr was officially in Picasso’s Art and his life and was changing and not only his love life but also his worldview. Dora was the muse of pain and suffering in the world at large and in the world of the personal suffering view.
Dora Marr was a Surrealist photographer with a reputation of her own. She and Picasso seduced each other until she gave up her will to him, as time went on, but not before she sharpened his interests in Social Consciousness. It was Picasso’s good friend the communist poet Paul Eluard who introduced Dora to him and with the effect of both Eluard and Dora in Picasso’s life how could Picasso’s social consciousness not be raised to a heightened state.
Picasso’s “Dora Marr and the Minotaur” was completed in the very early days of their relationship (September 1936) and it clearly shows how Picasso wanted to have his way with Dora in order to regenerate himself and how she seemed to enigmatically allow Picasso to have his way with her.
In January of 1937 Picasso accepted an important commission from the Spanish Republican government for a very large mural to be painted for the World’s Fair in Paris, which began in June of 1937. The Republicans wanted Picassos mural to draw attention and educate the world about their struggle with the forces of Fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
For Picasso this commitment meant that he would now need to focus his creativity away from expressing his personal issues to involving himself with the problems of the world at large. He knew it was time to renew his sense of Social Consciousness.
Picasso took a new studio on the rue des Grands Austines (a very short stretch of street for such a long name) in order to have a studio large enough to paint the mural. Dora found this new studio and she moved into an apartment around the corner and in which she lived in until her death in July of 1997.
Immediately upon moving into this grand new studio Picasso began his series of etchings called the “Dream and Lie of Franco” in which Picasso shows Franco as a bombastic idiot and in which the Minotaur charges head on at Franco to destroy him. The series is done in a serial set of etchings so that readers could easily follow along with the action much as a storybook.
As 1937 ticks towards the Worlds Fair in June Picasso is troubled by the immense burden that he has taken on in painting the mural and the fact that he didn’t feel comfortable at all with the project.
At the same time, February, the forces of Franco had taken over his birthplace of Malaga and the civil war raged on causing deep anxiety in Picasso’s daily life. Also his arch nemesis, his wife Olga was taking legal steps to separate Picasso from many of paintings and his property. Picasso was in a twisted turmoil once again.
On top of all of his other problems Picassos relationship with Dora was full of distress as she often stood up to his dominating character and at the same time made herself indispensable as his muse so that expelling her from Picasso’s lair, for now, was unthinkable. It was as if the Spanish Civil War was thrusting these two lovers together, at a huge cost to both of them, in order for each of them to sort out their emotions and their sense of social justice and promote Picassos ability to empty out himself into a great anti-war painting for the world to embrace.
Meanwhile the days were counting until the need to deliver the mural to the Spanish pavilion and now it was mid-April and Picasso was struggling with ideas. One sketched out idea was for a classic painting of the artist in his studio with his models and another was of a more proletarian idea depicting the citizens of Spain hoisting a hammer and a sickle to represent the Russian Communist support of the Republican government of Spain but neither of these ideas got past the sketch book phase.
The atrocity of the Nazi fire bombing of Guernica is what finally pushed Picasso to his inspiration for the mural at last. On April 26, 1937 the Basque city of Guernica is nearly totally destroyed after three and one-half hours of constant air bombing by the German Luftwaffe followed by another hour of the Italian air force polishing off the German effort. Over two thousand men, women and children are killed by the fascist assault of Guernica and this brutality in support of Franco is what gave Picasso the moral impetus to empty out his troubled thoughts about his beloved Spain and the Spanish people being thrust into a total oppression by the military elite of Franco’s forces.
Merde or just plain shit!
Picasso painted Guernica in three weeks while Dora Marr photographed the process of the painting and all of the myriad of changes involved in the themes of the painting. As a viewer of Guernica you are drawn into the plight of the pain and suffering of the citizens who have no way out of this suffocating and claustrophobic death. You truly have a sense of the chaos of what the victims were going through at the hands of Fascist military elite of Spain, Germany and Italy during the confusion of the bombing.
Again we see the depiction of the Bull and the Horse. The horse (who on one level represents Spanish humanity) is experiencing the death and calamity of the bombing along with the people of Guernica. Meanwhile the Bull stands firm as the only element in the painting that seems set for survival. The image of the Bull is a reflection of the eternal renewal of Spain and brings hope of a future in Spain where even this criminal destruction will be overcome by a refreshed Spain in the future. Picasso is offering up his sense of self, his sense of Minotaur and the Bull to give a future to the people of Spain in contrast to the military elite who as Picasso says, “want to immerse Spain into a sea of suffering and death.”
But then again the images could just be of a Bull and a Mare.
Picasso has now arrived at his state of social involvement with mankind and his need to affect it’s future in a positive direction much as the Anarchists had spoken of 50 years before. Someone needed to do this and with a sense of urgency please. We will see the fulfillment of his social involvement with the people of the world after the Nazi occupation of Paris is over.
Charles Grimes, March 2014
