Cover of Surrealist Journal Minotaure, 1935 by Joan Mir

Founded in 1933 by Albert Skira, Minotaure became the official Surrealist journal, replacing the then-defunct Le Surrealisme au service de la Revolution. Unlike its predecessor, this avant-garde review was presented in a luxurious format, the cover illustrations being commissioned from many of its leading artists such as Joan Miro, as seen here, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst.

Apart from articles on art by such diverse figures as Salvador Dali who wrote a theory on the new colors of spectral sex-appeal and Andre Breton on Picasso in his element; the journal reproduced a number of rare documents and highlighted aspects of Surrealism in past paintings. There were also articles on psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud and poems by, for example, Breton who sought self analysis in his work La Nuit du tournesol ('The Night of the Sunflower').

The Minotaur was a Greek mythological bull-headed man. The creature and its legend become the inspiration for a number of artists both in the Classical and Romantic traditions that continued well into the twentieth century and the modern movements. Catalan artists such as Miro and Picasso had a particular affinity with the depiction of the creature through their cultural heritage of bullfighting.