Theseus and the Minotaur
Artist
Alexandre Jacovleff
(French, born Russia, 1887 - 1938)
Date1938
MediumCasein on paper
DimensionsUnframed: 15 × 9 1/8 inches (38.1 × 23.19 cm)
Credit LineGift of Martin Birnbaum
Object number45-40
On View
Not on viewCollections
Exhibition HistoryIacovleff Memorial Exhibition, Grand Central Galleries, New York, April 11-29, 1939, no. 171.
Jacovleff ’s drawing depicts a nude, muscular man locked in mortal combat with a nude, bull-headed man (a Minotaur). The battle takes place between the blue sky of life, above, and the bony desert of death, below. Made in 1938, as fascism gripped Germany and Italy, it speaks to the political climate of the day through the ancient language of myth. The Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur tells the story of brave, enlightened reason triumphing over monstrous, devouring passion. In order to liberate Athens from the deadly demands of King Minos of Crete, Theseus entered the labyrinth, fought and killed the Minotaur, then retraced his steps, guided by a thread laid out upon his entry, and emerged victorious.
Probably
acquired from the artist by Martin Birnbaum, 1938-1945 [1];
His gift,
through Harold Woodbury Parsons, to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
City, MO, 1945.
NOTES:
[1] Birnbaum
was a close friend of Jacovleff, whose final work was a portrait of Birnbaum,
completed just days before his death in May 1938. This drawing was completed the
same year. See Martin Birnabum, Jacovleff
and Other Artists (New York: Paul A. Struck, 1946).
Iacovleff Memorial Exhibition, New York: Grand Central Galleries, 1939, 26.
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