Chicago’s collection of public art was initiated on August 15, 1967, when Mayor Richard J. Daley dedicated an untitled sculpture commonly known as “The Picasso” in Chicago’s new Civic Center (now the Richard J. Daley Center). Just four years earlier, architect William Hartmann of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill had approached Pablo Picasso with the commission. The artist accepted and crafted two steel maquettes; he kept one in his studio and gave the other to the architect to use in planning. The sculpture’s presence inspired private and public investment in more works for the cityscape over the years, including recent additions in nearby Millennium Park.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Milwaukee Art Museum, Controversial Public Art: From Rodin to di Suvero, exh. cat. (Milwaukee, Wis.: Milwaukee Art Museum, 1983), p. 40, cat. 32.
Sylvie Forestier, Pablo Picasso, La Guerre et la Paix (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1991), pp. 83–84, fig. 66.
Carsten-Peter Warncke, Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 II (Cologne: Benedikt Taschen, 1992), p. 579 (ill.).
Werner Spies, Picasso: Das Plastiche Werk (Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje, 1998), pp. 370 and 403, no. 643.2b (ill.).
The Picasso Project, Picasso’s Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, and Sculpture: A Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue 1885–1973, The Sixties II 1964–1967 (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 2002), p. 133, no. 64–373 (ill.).
La epoca de Picasso: donaciones a los museos americanos (Santander: Fundación Marcelino Botín, 2004), pp. 43 and 247.
Michael Fitzgerald, Picasso and American Art, Exh. cat. (Yale University Press, 2006), p. 258, ill. 260, pl. 133.
Stephanie D’Alessandro and Renée DeVoe Mertz, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), 13, fig. 5 (color ill.).
Carmen Giménez, ed., with essays by Carmen Giménez, Diana Widmaier-Ruiz Picasso, and Pepe Karmel, Picasso Sculptor: Matter and Body, exh. cat. (Madrid: La Fábrica, 2023), 17, fig. 11 (ill.), 46, 47, 133 (color ill.), 141 (color ill.).
Marko Daniel, Emmanuel Guigon, Margarida Cortadella, Elena Llorens, Teresa Montaner, Sònia Villegas, Christopher Green, et. al., Miró–Picasso, exh. cat. (Barcelona: Fundació Museu Picasso de Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, 2023), 250 (color ill.), 251, 320.
London, Tate Gallery, Picasso Sculpture, Ceramics, Graphic Work, June 9–Aug. 13, 1967, p. 108, cat. 203 (ill.).
New York, Museum of Modern Art, The Sculpture of Picasso, Oct. 9, 1967–Jan. 7, 1968, pp. 206 and 225, cat. 204 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Picasso in Chicago, Feb. 3–Mar. 31, 1968, hors cat..
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Picasso Retrospective, May 1–Sept. 16, 1980, p. 442 (ill.).
Milwaukee Art Museum, Controversial Public Art: From Rodin to di Suvero, Oct. 21, 1983–Jan. 15, 1984, p. 40, cat. 32.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Picasso and American Art, Sept. 28, 2006–Jan. 28, 2007, pp. 254, 258, 260, pl. 133, and 387; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Feb. 25–May 28 2007; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, June 17–Sept. 9, 2007.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Picasso Sculpture, Sept. 14, 2015–Feb. 7, 2016; Paris, Musée Picasso, Mar. 8-Aug. 28, 2016.
Malaga, Museo Picasso Malaga, Picasso Sculptor: Matter and Body, May 8–Sept. 10, 2023, no cat. no.; Bilbao, Museo Guggenheim, Sept. 29, 2023–Jan. 14, 2024 (Malaga only).
Barcelona, simultaneously held at Fundació Joan Miró and Musée Picasso, Miró–Picasso, Oct. 20, 2023–Feb. 25, 2024; no cat. no; Paris, Musée national Picasso-Paris, Mar. 28–July 28, 2024 [Fundació Joan Miró only].
The artist; given to the Art Institute, 1966.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
