Chicago Picasso Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Chicago Picasso

Artist	Pablo Picasso
Year	1967
Type	Sculpture
Dimensions	15 m (50 ft)
Location	Daley Plaza, Chicago
Coordinates	41°53′01″N 87°37′48″W / 41.88361°N 87.62997°W / 41.88361; -87.62997

The Chicago Picasso is a huge, untitled sculpture created by the famous artist Pablo Picasso. You can find it in Chicago, Illinois, a big city in the United States. People often just call it The Picasso.

This amazing artwork was officially shown to the public on August 15, 1967. It stands tall in Daley Plaza, right in the heart of downtown Chicago. The sculpture is about 50 feet (15 meters) tall, which is like a five-story building! It also weighs a massive 162 short tons (about 147,000 kilograms). This Cubist sculpture was the very first major public artwork of its kind in downtown Chicago, and it quickly became a famous landmark.

What is the Chicago Picasso?
- What Does the Sculpture Represent?
- A Fun Place to Visit
How the Picasso Came to Chicago
- Picasso's Gift to the City
- Building the Giant Sculpture
Images for kids
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What is the Chicago Picasso?

The Chicago Picasso is a very unique and abstract sculpture. It doesn't look like a clear picture of anything, which is typical of Picasso's Cubism style. Cubism is an art movement where artists break objects into different shapes and then put them back together in new ways. This makes the artwork look like it's made of many different angles and pieces.

What Does the Sculpture Represent?

Even though the sculpture is untitled, many people have tried to guess what it shows. Some think it looks like a woman's head, possibly Picasso's Afghan Hound dog, or even a bird. Picasso himself never said what it was, which lets everyone imagine their own meaning. This mystery makes the sculpture even more interesting!

A Fun Place to Visit

One of the coolest things about the Chicago Picasso is how people interact with it. It's known for being very inviting, almost like a jungle gym. Kids and even adults visiting Daley Plaza often climb on its base or slide down parts of it. This makes it a playful and interactive piece of art, unlike many sculptures that you can only look at from a distance.

How the Picasso Came to Chicago

The idea for the sculpture came about in the early 1960s. The city of Chicago wanted a special piece of art for the new Daley Center. They asked Picasso to create a sculpture for the plaza.

Picasso's Gift to the City

Picasso was very excited about the project. He worked on the design and even made a smaller model, called a maquette, to show what the final sculpture would look like. What's amazing is that Picasso didn't charge Chicago any money for his design. He saw it as a gift to the city and its people. This generous act helped make the sculpture a beloved part of Chicago's art scene.

Building the Giant Sculpture

Once Picasso's design was chosen, the challenge was to build such a huge and complex sculpture. It was made from a special type of steel called weathering steel. This steel is designed to rust on the outside, forming a protective layer that gives it a unique reddish-brown color. This color helps the sculpture blend in with the surrounding buildings. The construction of the sculpture was a big project, bringing Picasso's vision to life in a massive way.