Auguste Blackman’s depictions of the minotaur take after Pablo Picasso’s. The part man part bull recurs throughout the latter artist’s oeuvre, giving form to an entanglement of ideas. On one hand, it embodies Picasso’s lasciviousness, violence, guilt and despair. The minotaur is by nature uncontrollable; a victim to its own swelling instincts. On a more universal level, the minotaur symbolises the unconscious at large; for the surrealists, it evoked forbidden desire.

In all of us lives a monster. All we can do is become acquainted with it; “Once we come to know our demons, then we can know our true selves”, says Auguste. Caught between an endangered civility and brute desire, the minotaur could be understood through Freud’s battle between Eros and Thanatos. In Auguste’s ‘Picasso's Monsters’ however, this implication is cut by something sweet. These minotaurs meet to admire flowers. They find peace through the divine feminina of nature.

For collectors of figurative expressionist art and admirers of Auguste, this major work is must. Both sweet and fierce, monstrous and moving, get to know the ‘Monsters’ within you.
 

Auguste BLACKMAN (1957 - )
'Picasso's Monsters' 2016
Acrylic on canvas
Image Size: 110 x 155 cm
Dimensions: 110 x 155 x 4 cm
Signed: Auguste Blackman lower right
Comes with Letter of Provenance
Stretched Canvas
Condition:As New: The work of art is in the same immaculate condition as when it was created. This could be the description for a work of art that may have been in storage for years, never sold on the market but may still be some years old.