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Exhibition Highlights


<I>Palette, Candlestick, and Head of Minotaur,</I> November 4, 1938<BR>Oil on canvas <BR>The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto <BR>[Cat. no. 32]
Palette, Candlestick, and Head of Minotaur, November 4, 1938
Oil on canvas
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
[Cat. no. 32]
©2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Palette, Candlestick, and Head of Minotaur, November 4, 1938

Palette, Candlestick, and Head of Minotaur, November 4, 1938
Oil on canvas
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
[Cat. no. 32]
©2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

In November 1938, Picasso painted four versions of a still life featuring a candlestick, a palette and brushes resting on an open book, and a head with horns. This canvas, dated November 4th, is the first and the most dramatic painting in the series. In some versions the horned head suggests a sculptural bust, while in other paintings it looks more like a severed body part. Here, the bust combines a human profile with the horns of a bull, signaling a reference to the minotaur, a creature (half man and half bull) from classical mythology. Picasso was aware that to members of the Surrealist movement, the minotaur symbolized the dual aspects of human nature: the rational and the irrational, the conscious and the unconscious mind. The artist's palette, the open book, and the burning candle (the light of truth or inspiration) suggest forces that moderate the minotaur's sometimes violent behavior. While the candle illuminates one side of the creature's face, the other side remains shrouded in darkness.

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