A brush with Surrealist art

Surrealist artists often vastly differed from each other in terms of style. A fine example of this is in the way the part-man-part-bull figure of Minotaur from Greek mythology has been interpreted by the artists Francis Picabia, Joan Miró and Masson.

Picabia's The Adoration of the Calf took its cue from a satirical photographic collage from 1937, also displayed at the show. Picabia's Minotaur looks like a European aristocrat, sitting for a portrait — its depth and three-dimensional quality created by the use of chiaroscuro. The figure is surrounded by a sea of adoring arms reaching out from below.