Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
© Sucesión Picasso, VEGAP, Madrid, 2023.
One of Picasso's recurring themes was bullfighting and the representation of the bull and the minotaur. For Picasso, the bull is an ambiguous symbol, representative of opposing emotions that can symbolize violence, eroticism, love and struggle. The figure of the minotaur has been read as an alter ego of the artist himself.
Since his childhood, the artist accompanied his father to the bullrings. For him, bullfights were not only an exciting spectacle, but embodied the essence of the Spanish, where life was intertwined with the tragic and the passionate. The artist did not abandon this hobby and throughout his life he continued to visit the bullring both in Spain and in the south of France, in Arles and Nimes.
Corrida de toros (1934) is part of a series painted at the Château de Boisgeloup that is now part of the permanent collection of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
In the readings that associate the artist's life and work, this piece marks one of the most turbulent periods in the artist's life. In those years Picasso was going through a deep personal crisis, marked by the rise of fascism in Europe and the instability of his marital relationship with Olga, his first wife. The appearance of Marie-Thérèse, who ended up becoming his mistress, generated an emotional whirlwind that Picasso manifested in his art.
For Paloma Alarcó in Corrida de toros (1934), the artist focuses on the confrontation between the bull and the horse, perhaps as a metaphor for the opposition between man and woman. This symbolic struggle represented the artist's own inner conflict and reflected his own personal and political battles. Picasso's bullfighting series had a profound impact on the European artistic context of the time. Artists close to him, such as Picabia, Braque, Gris and André Masson, began to take an interest in the subject from an avant-garde perspective.
Currently, the Musée Goya. Musée d'art hispanique analyzes in more depth the theme of La Tauromaquia and how it becomes a sacred expression of the struggle between man and animal through its exhibition Goya en la mirada de Picasso.
Sources:
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza: https://www.museothyssen.org/coleccion/artistas/picasso-pablo/corrida-toros
Musée national Picasso-Paris: https://www.museepicassoparis.fr/fr/picasso-et-lespagne
Blog Museu Picasso Barcelona: https://www.blogmuseupicassobcn.org/2013/06/picasso-y-la-tauromaquia/?lang=es