The Chicago Picasso

The monumental sculpture by Pablo Picasso in Daley Plaza has no official title. People call it “The Chicago Picasso” (or even just “The Picasso”). On a walking tour hosted by the Chicago Architecture Center, our guide Tom shared this story.

It was the early 1960s, and a public sculpture was needed for the new Civic Center. The most famous artist at the time was Pablo Picasso. It was a long shot, but Mayor Richard J. Daley didn't hesitate to approve the idea. A delegation traveled to the French Riviera, where Picasso was living at the time, with a check from the city for $100,000. The 82-year-old artist refused outright, saying that he didn’t take commissions. Daley was nonplussed. He found out what Picasso liked: primitive art and sports. The delegation returned to France, this time bearing gifts to give the artist a sense of Chicago: a Native American war bonnet, a White Sox baseball jersey, photos of Carl Sandburg and Ernest Hemingway. This time, Picasso was in a better mood. He accepted the gifts, but refused the check. Instead, he offered a 42-inch maquette as a gift to the city.

Back in Chicago, U.S. Steel manufactured the full-scale sculpture from Cor-Ten steel (the same material used for the exterior of the Daley Center building). The resulting work was 50 feet tall and weighed 162 tons. It was assembled on Daley Plaza, hidden by scaffolding and tarps. In August 1967, thousands of curious people gathered on the Civic Center Plaza for the unveiling. When Mayor Daley pulled the cord to release the drapery and the sculpture was revealed, the crowd was stunned into silence. “What IS it?”

Source: The Art Newspaper

The Picasso was discussed and debated all over the city. Was it too ugly or too strange to be great art? Was the artist playing a joke on the city? But despite years of controversy, it became a symbol of Chicago.

Nearly sixty years later, people still ask “What IS it, anyway?” A woman’s head? A baboon? A horse? A bird? I think that ambiguity, or perhaps that power to appear as something different to each person, makes the Chicago Picasso a great work of art.