Chicago Picasso @ 40
(photos by Lee Bey)
Thie famed Picasso sculpture at Daley Plaza turned 40 this week. When unveiled in August, 1967 the five-story 162-ton work was seen as a tough, brawny and daringly modern work that symbolized the New Chicago of the late 1960s. It also opened the door for Alexander Calder's Flamingo at Federal Plaza, the Marc Chagall's Four Seasons at Chase Plaza and other top notch public art including Cloudgate at Millennium Park.
Anyway, check out this pretty good piece on the Picasso by CBS2's Joanie Lum. It features some pretty good archival footage from WTTW of the construction and unveiling. The late William Hartmann of SOM is the architect referred to (but not mentioned by name) in the Lum's piece who approached Pablo Picasso to do the sculpture.
(Above:) Kids climbing on the Picasso. A time honored rite. If you climb on Cloudgate at Millennium Park, they'll probably put you in jail.
The Public Building Commission's website provides some nice details of the Picasso and its history:
Picasso, who refused to accept payment for his work, designed a 42-inch model of the sculpture that he presented as a "gift to the people of Chicago." The actual sculpture, however, was manufactured by United States Steel Corporation in Gary, Indiana, where it was entirely pre-assembled, then disassembled, and subsequently shipped to the Daley Center to be reassembled in its final form. The steel that was utilized for the exterior of the Daley Center was also used for the Picasso sculpture, and, over time, developed the same patina.
One more thing. What (or who) does the sculpture depict? Picasso, who died in 1973 without stepping foot in Chicago, never said. Scholars believe it is his wife Olga, the subject of many of Picasso's works. Judging by this 1920 Picasso sketch of Olga, I think they might be on to something.
Comments
Yikes! 40 years?
Posted by: Terry Murray | August 16, 2007 07:53 PM
When I was younger, I could never fully appreciate the Picasso. Maybe because my young mind could not understand the Cor-Ten steel, of both the statue and the building, or what in the world it was really a statue of. Now of course, I can appreciate the Miesean building, the modernist plaza - what they mean to the fabric of the city and history - and the statute itself has become very special to me. Although I think Cloud Gate has won first place in my heart, watching my daughter play on the Picasso as it were her own personal playground puts it in a class of its own.
Now if somebody could just make a decent reproduction of it for desk, shelf and gift purposes!!
Posted by: Jeff Scurry | August 17, 2007 09:57 AM
I have always thought that the Chicago lady was the last wife of Picasso... Jacqueline Roque.
Dark hair swept to the side, the strong features long neck, curvy, but cold with too much passion for her own good.
But perhaps I read too much into the Chicago Lady, maybe Picasso never told because it was none of our business.
Maybe the not knowing is better ~W
Posted by: Watercolorz | September 11, 2007 03:16 PM