The Rape of Europa 1938

Editor: Here we have Jacques Lipchitz's "The Rape of Europa," a sculpture at the Tate. I’m struck by how this classical myth becomes almost playful in Lipchitz's hands, softened somehow, and I wonder, what do you see in this piece? Curator: The story is, of course, fraught, but Lipchitz is less interested in the violence and more in the transformation. Europa clings to the bull, doesn't she? It's not just abduction, but perhaps a kind of embrace, a journey into the unknown. You feel that, yes? Editor: Absolutely. I hadn’t considered the idea of the journey itself being the central theme. It’s a fresh perspective. Curator: Sometimes, the darkest tales give birth to the most unexpected beauty, a dance between terror and transformation. Isn't that wild? Editor: It is! I’ll never look at this myth the same way again.