By Pippa LaMacchia '26

Access the scans of this periodical via Princeton University Library.

The rise of surrealism as an international movement is not one simply limited to Europe thanks to its universalist socio-political goal of personal liberation. Shortly after the 1924 publication of Breton’s The Surrealist Manifesto, the first official surrealist magazine La Révolution surréaliste is published. This magazine is the first in a lineage of periodicals that multiplied globally over the course of many decades during the 20th century, bringing the inherently universalist and dynamic movement of surrealism to an even broader audience. Nearly a decade after the first issue of la Révolution surréaliste 1933 sees the first edition of a magazine entitled Minotaure, a vibrant French publication known for its luxurious design and wide outreach (Storm 2022, 249).

Minotaure was founded by Swiss art collector and publisher Albert Skira in collaboration with Tériade, a pen name for the Greek art critic and publisher Stratis Eleftheriades. In its early issues, Minotaure was by no means exclusively surrealist even though it compiled works by well-known surrealist artists and writers like André Breton, Salvador Dalí and André Masson, among others. It is also important to note that the magazine begins its publication after surrealism has already been self-defined and spreading internationally for nearly a decade (Rentzou 2022, 218). It is generally noted that the early issues of Minotaure are not considered entirely surrealist, even if much of the art represents the surrealist ethos, because Albert Skira explicitly requested that Minotaure would not be a political forum (Rentzou 2022, 219). Eventually, as surrealist artists and writers like Paul Éluard, Pierre Mabille, and André Breton take on larger editorial roles for Minotuare, the magazine shifts towards a more explicit surrealist orientation, with political undertones, throughout the course of its six years and thirteen editions until the end of its publication at the brink of the second world war in 1939.

A key distinguishing factor of Minotaure is its artistic novelty and visual impact. Before the journal is even opened, the magazine’s remarkably designed covers stand out. Every issue cover is brightly colored and extremely detailed, as surrealist artists are commissioned to create their version of the mythological figure, the minotaur. The colors and striking patterns are remarkable today, but even more so at the time of its publication when the majority of other magazines, like La Révolution surréaliste, or even art magazines, like Cahiers d’art, for example, were published mostly in black and white.

The quotidien, or ubiquitous daily nature of these simple plants or of a domestic doily extend the aesthetic and general orientation of this magazine to a wide public in an accessible manner. The banality with which the minotaur is sketched onto a scrap of paper and tacked on top of a collection of mundane items reinforces the accessibility of Minotaure. Art publications may have appeared elitist or unimportant to many people, but the compelling casualness of Picasso’s design may have invited a new audience to the genre of surrealist periodicals.

This accessibility is essential because even though publisher Albert Skira requests that surrealist political positions be left out of the magazine, the unavoidably interwoven socio-political nature of surrealism with its artistic expression makes this task impossible. The front cover of the first issue (arguably the least politically surrealist issue of the journal itself), which is made approachable with an aesthetic that combines quotidian banality with ancient myth, speaks to a desire for a wide outreach. Additionally, because Minotaure comes into existence at a time when surrealism as an artistic movement with distinct political positions is already well defined, the political message can be more subtle while maintaining its impact or influence. Therefore, Minotaure becomes subversively surrealist, even if its early issues do not explicitly embody political values. Taken over by a surrealist editorial team after issue 3, Minotaure transforms into a powerful political tool for the group.

Going back to the first issue, the relaxed minotaur on the journal’s cover extends to the pages of the first issue with a series of matching sketches of the figure, also by Picasso. The human and bodily nature of these drawings is particularly striking because the minotaur becomes a sexualized and hyper-masculine figure, pulling the viewer further away from the classical Greek understanding of the minotaur as a monster. The mutability of the bodily representation of the minotaur himself (a hybrid that is both human and non-human, simultaneously masculine, and feminine, and both a monster and sexual being) speaks to the ethical artistic endeavors of the surrealists. These illustrations, along with others throughout the run of the magazine, transform the “classical” myth into an entirely new representation and therefore new form of thought. This re-representation is a key moment of transition and exploration as Minotaure exists in the unsteady bridge between the two wars. In fact, all of Minotaure’s extravagant covers engage in this re-representation of the ancient figure and push the exploratory nature of this periodical, as surrealists push the boundaries of a whole classical tradition.

Indeed, Minotaure’s other covers are equally impactful. From Henri Matisse’s ambiguously feminine face sketched through lopsided letters that spell out “Minotaure” to Salvador Dalí’s terrifying half-woman half-object monster, these covers interrupt and subvert traditional of Greek antiquity. Minotaur itself, as a Greek myth, connects directly and by opposition to western readings of “Greece” that emphasize a specific type of human perfection (represented by classical Greek statues and general aesthetic). The surrealists take this theme and invert it — beginning with these shocking covers. Even simply allowing a new artist to reinterpret each edition of the magazine opens a universe of imaginative possibility and a representation of the minotaur as mutable and changeable.

The surrealists take a stagnant and well defined Greek figure and, by constantly refiguring it, transform it into an avatar of the human, which is also disengaged in its representations in the journal from notions of classical perfection. In their contemporary context of looming fascism, this messaging is also political due to the fascist emphasis on a “perfect” human that recuperates classical notions of perfection - which tragically will become reality during the war (Rentzou, 2024). The surrealists combat the notion of a singular, perfect human being by constantly changing the representation of the human in Minotaure. Each new cover demonstrates the natural mutability of the physical form (for example, Marcel Duchamp’s geometric layers of circles that don't appear to be anything more upon first glance), and its pages are filled with hundreds of new interpretations of the human body and human psyche. Minotaure moves away from “perfect” figures, the “ideal human,” to present the human as multiple.

The surprising subversiveness of Minotaure is what makes it one of the most well-known and powerful surrealist publications. While defined as politically ambivalent, the interwoven nature of surrealist ethics and politics makes an apolitical position entirely impossible. Minotaure’s striking colors and diversity of artistic content, make the magazine into one of the most recognizable and powerful examples of surrealist publications with a global impact.

Hopkins, David, ed. A Companion to Dada and Surrealism. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. ProQuest Ebook Central, 2016. Accessed March 2024. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/princeton/detail.action?docID=4418731.

Rentzou, Effie. Concepts of the World: The French Avant-Garde and the Idea of the International, 1910-1940. 2022. Accessed March 2014. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1cf5j1hv.

Rentzou, Effie. “Surrealism Lecture.” Lecture, Princeton University, New Jersey, 2024.

Skira, Albert, ed. "Minotaure." Minotaure. No. 1-13 (1933-1939).

Storm, Kristen, ed. The Routledge Companion to Surrealism. Routledge, New York. 2022. Accessed March 2024. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003139652.