Minotaur
Man Ray’s Minotaur is actually made up of the torso of a nude woman’s body. The minotaur in greek mythology is kept imprisoned in a labyrinth on the island of crete, cretan youth were sacrificed to it. The minotaur and his labyrinth were another potent symbol for the surrealist due to the minotaur collapsing the human and animal instincts. symbols of the unconscious mind and also the bestial nature or those instincts within every human. They want to liberate suppressed repressed instincts. it is familiar but is made to be unfamiliar, we see this other imagery in it, dual imagery, makes you doubt what you are looking at. The figure of the woman is also very important to the surrealist she is a well spring or muse of creativity because she herself is irrational and emotional. She symbolizes the unconscious and irrational as well. Her body is creating the head of a monster with her nipples as the eyes and her arms its horns, beauty and monstrosity are made into one, suggesting they are projections of our own desires.
