Minotaur in Singapore

The Singapore Tyler Print Institute is currently hosting the Vollard Suite, a collection of 100 prints (etchings, aquatints and drypoints from 1930 to 1937) by Picasso.

The institute proclaims that this collection is regarded as
“one of the most important graphic series in the history of art, comparable in quality and importance only to the prints of Rembrant & Goya”.
It doesn't say why though.

I’m pleasantly surprised that a CF firm I worked for is one of the sponsors of the exhibition. I’ve always love prints so I enjoyed this collection. GO see!

The Vollard Suite reveals Picasso's then obsessions, the classically derived (meaning often naked) subjects of the Minotaur and Pygmalion.

Picasso identified himself with the mythical MINOTAUR. Ego ego ego. Sometimes the Minotaur is the artist, or lover in a studio setting, and on other occasions, a bull in the ring of a bullfight.



Picasso's interpretations of PYGMALION were also autobiographical. Images of life in a sculptor's studio, and idealised self-portraits of Picasso in "relaking" couch potatoe mode, working with nude models and various pieces of art dominate.





"In a group of prints made towards the end of 1934, the themes of the man–beast, the artist and the model merged. The Minotaur is finally blinded by his own unbridled passions, and is led away by a young girl whose physiognomy recalls Marie-Thérèse."



Picasso had met Marie Therese Walter in the mid 1920s outside Galeries Lafayette, and became obsessed with her. With her "classical" countenance, Marie-Thérèse soon became both lover and inspiration for Picasso's art.

Meet Marie Therese Walter [not part of the suite]:














I would like to pick up studio art again. I do like printmaking, which is therapeutic, though it does get messy, smelly and health hazardous at times - wiping turpentine-soaked cloth off your arms to remove paint, and sore arms from laborious polishing of sticky paint off plates, wearing unfashionable fisherman rubber aprons to protect clothes.
But end of the day, great sense of satisfaction when you look at beautiful or "interesting" stuff you've created.


The information above on the Vollard Suite are derived from the following websites:http://www.nga.gov.au/exhibitions/Picasso/index.html, http://www.marlboroughfineart.com/exhibitions/view.asp?id=161, http://www.shareholder.com/bid/downloads/news/20060914-211070.pdf.