Picasso and Surrealism

Picasso's artistic style evolved considerably since his arrival in Paris in 1901. The blue and pink periods followed, then a pictorial revolution with cubism, sometimes going as far as abstraction. Picasso never stopped renewing his representation of reality. Following his collaboration with Diaghilev for the Russian ballet and influenced by Apollinaire, then André Breton, the artist gradually shifts to an art associated with surrealism beginning in 1924. What is the relationship between Picasso and the surrealist movement?

The theme of ancient mythology appears at this time in the work of Pablo Picasso. The first representation of the figure of the Minotaur dates from 1928. During the summer of 1931, which he spent in Juan-les-Pins, he initiated a series of engravings for the "Suite Vollard", a commission from his art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. This suite features the artist in his studio, as well as the figure of the Minotaur, which Picasso represents as a mise en abyme of himself, with Marie-Therese in the role of model of the painter. In the fall, mythology reappeared in Picasso's work with the illustration of Ovid's Metamorphoses, edited by Albert Skira. Skira, a publisher specializing in books and art magazines, regularly called on various artists of the time to illustrate its works. The painter thus devoted himself to illustrated books. For the publication of Honoré de Balzac's "Unknown Masterpiece", Vollard commissioned thirteen etchings. Beyond Picasso, it is the surrealist movement reinvested the myth of the "Minotaur", as evidenced by the magazine itself called Minotaur. Initiated by another publisher and Greek art critic, Tériade, it convenes many artists affiliated with surrealism, including Picasso, who collaborates with him.

In 1933 he made a collage for one of the first covers. The joint publication of numbers 1 and 2 of the magazine, includes an article by André Breton: "Picasso in his element". Regularly, "Minotaure" will publish articles on Picasso, often written by Tériade himself. The theme of the Minotaur never left Picasso, who used it in his series of engravings called "La Minotauromachie" in 1935. The figure of the ancient monster is closely followed by the reappearance of the theme of the bullfight, a dear and recurring subject in the work of Picasso, who since childhood, is fascinated by this part of Spanish culture, and more broadly Mediterranean.

Picasso met Marie-Thérèse, while she was walking with her sister on the Boulevard Haussmann, in front of the Lafayette Galleries. The painter fell instantly under the spell of the young girl. Being still married to Olga Kokhlova, they had to hide their relationship, especially since Marie-Thérèse was a minor at the time of their meeting. Picasso bought the Château de Boisgeloup near Gisors, where he set up his sculpture studio in 1930. He then secretly moved Marie-Thérèse to 44 rue La Boétie in Paris. A year later, at Boisgeloup, he began the series of "Heads" and "Busts of Women", in plaster, which are variations on the face of Marie-Thérèse. The representation of Marie-Thérèse fascinated Picasso, who never stopped depicting her in various ways, both as a goddess in his mythological illustrations, and as an inspiring muse. In 1935, Picasso separated from Olga, but the couple renounced divorce. On September 5 of that year, Maria de la Concepción, nicknamed Maya, was born, the daughter of Pablo and Maria Teresa, to whom Picasso would remain very close throughout his life.