The Picasso: Minotaurs and Matadors exhibition at the Gagosian (London W1, until August 25) is a burdensome proposal. To face a Picasso is already difficult enough, let alone one depicting a Minotaur, with all its Spanish connotations as well as its mythological ones.
The most startling series on show is 1935’s Minotauromachy, an intensely personal series for Picasso, shown here in eight pictures, which darken slowly from pale black and white, with the final one in faint colour. They depict a giant Minotaur, under which lies a wounded female bullfighter. The scene is lit by a candle, held by a young girl.
