Deconstructing the Bull

Picasso’s The Bull, created in late 1945, reveals how a great artist turns an idea into a masterpiece. Starting the series with a realistic drawing of a bull, Picasso used the following 10 lithographs to mutate and dissect its form, stripping away details and stylizing its anatomy. In the end, Picasso turned a highly literal representation of a bull into an intertwined series of abstract elements that balance and counterbalance each other to make up a powerful and expressive work of art. The last image is a single sinuous line that is still unmistakably a bull.

Many artists have studied The Bull over the years. It is almost a master class in its own right on the artistic process.