La dépouille du Minotaure en habit d’arlequin
(The Minotaur’s body dressed as a harlequin) Pablo Picasso, 1936

When I hear the sentence, “one of the world’s greatest…” my eyes generally glaze over, followed by an attack of involuntary yawning, but the thing is, Picasso really was great. Firstly, he could paint. Secondly, he was involved in starting awhole new art movement, Cubism. Thirdly, he was a right character, which is themost important thing if you want to go down in history as a legend.

In every big museum I’ve ever visited in Europe there’s been a Picasso. It’s a must-have must-see, but unlike many of the greats, his work is so varied that every work I’ve seen has been very different. This probably has something to dowith the fact he produced thousands of works. It was not only a result of hardwork, but the fact that he lived until he was 91.

I recently spent a couple of days in Toulouse as part of my holiday (go there it’s great!) and would’ve been a little disappointed if there wasn’t a Picasso or two to see, especially as the town is so influenced by Spanish culture. I thought I hadbeen there, done that and got the T-shirt when I saw Guernica in Madrid, but Iwas speechless when I saw this beauty. It’s gigantic, 10 metres high and morethan 12 metres across. I felt like a mouse, just look at the size of the woman’s head in the picture compared to the Minotaur’s!

Just to give you a bit of an explanation about the scene, a Minotaur is a creature from Greek Mythology that has the head of a bull and the body of a man; it was adopted as the symbol of the Surrealist movement, which Picassowas close to. In this case the man is dressed as a Harlequin, traditionally an important character in French theatre, which is significant as the painting was commissioned as the stage curtain for Romain Rolland’s play Le 14 juillet, writtento be performed on France’s national day. I get the feeling that this curtain wasa bit of a show-stealer. I’m not sure anyone would’ve been actually watching the play.

The work is on display at Les Abattoirs, Toulouse’s main contemporary art space, named after its previous function. Don’t be put off by the name though, it’s a great museum with architecture similar to the Musee D’Orsay and a collection ofmainly French artists, many from the region. Also, abattoirs have an importantplace in art history as the French Impressionists and Expressionists often visited Paris’ main slaughterhouses in the Villette district to paint haunches of blood-redmeat. Now the abattoirs of La Villette have been converted into a centre for artsthat includes a gallery, concert venues and a canal-side park.

Picasso, who had previously hung it in his studios, donated the stage curtain tothe city of Toulouse in 1965, but sadly it is now only shown to the public for part of the year due to its fragility.