Anniversary celebration of Picasso kicks off
- Thread starter Meanderer
- Start date
RadishRose
SF VIP
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
My fav Picasso
Self portrait age 18
Self portrait age 18
Meanderer
Supreme Member
More on the Chicago Picasso.....
"It is believed the work cost $351,959, which is equivalent to $2.7 million today. Charitable foundations, including the Woods Charitable Fund, the Field Foundation of Illinois, and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation, paid this cost. The three charities wanted to pay Picasso $100,000 for his labor and artistic skills, but the artist turned the payment down, stating that he wanted to make his work a gift. The sculpture was built using Cor-Ten steel, a material similar to the one used on the exterior of the Daley Center."
"Pablo had an intimate relationship with Chicago, stretching back to 1913 after the Art Institute of Chicago become the first art museum in the United States to feature a work by Pablo."
How & when it was created
"The Chicago Picasso was commissioned in 1963 by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center and facilitated by the Architect William Hartmann of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The artist completed a rough draft of the sculpture in 1965 and sanctioned a final model in 1966.""It is believed the work cost $351,959, which is equivalent to $2.7 million today. Charitable foundations, including the Woods Charitable Fund, the Field Foundation of Illinois, and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation, paid this cost. The three charities wanted to pay Picasso $100,000 for his labor and artistic skills, but the artist turned the payment down, stating that he wanted to make his work a gift. The sculpture was built using Cor-Ten steel, a material similar to the one used on the exterior of the Daley Center."
"Pablo had an intimate relationship with Chicago, stretching back to 1913 after the Art Institute of Chicago become the first art museum in the United States to feature a work by Pablo."
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RadishRose
SF VIP
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
That was wonderful to donate the sculpture to the city!
Meanderer
Supreme Member
"William Hartmann was the managing partner of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill when the firm was at its postwar peak, designing such modernist icons as the John Hancock Center. But he is best remembered for bringing the Picasso sculpture to Chicago, a quest that began in 1963 and involved several visits to the Spanish artist, who was living in the south of France."
"Picasso had never seen Chicago, and to the day of his death in 1973 he never would. To give him the flavor of the place, Mr. Hartmann presented Picasso an album of Chicago photographs and a model of the site for the Daley Center, which was completed in 1965 as a courtroom building. To further entice the great artist, Mr. Hartmann added a White Sox uniform, a Bears helmet, a fireman's hat, an Indian war bonnet and photos of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg."
"Finally, Picasso committed to doing the sculpture and even said he would present it to the people of Chicago as a gift."
"Recalling the many visits Mr. Hartmann made to Picasso, Walter Netsch, the retired Skidmore, Owings & Merrill partner, said Thursday: "He'd call me in and say, `What are we going to get for Picasso this time? How are we going to amuse him?'"
"When the finished sculpture--a 50-foot, 162-ton piece made of russet-colored Cor-ten steel--was dedicated on Aug. 15, 1967, a crowd of 50,000 watched as Mayor Richard J. Daley tugged a cord that unveiled the huge work. Mr. Hartmann sat next to Daley at the ceremony."
horseless carriage
Well-known Member
Iron Maiden is not the sort of music that would ever appeal to me, each to their own as they say. But I did warm to the sleeve cover of former band member Bruce Dickinson. Not an original remark but witty all the same.
Meanderer
Supreme Member
"At a reception for the unveiling of a large piece of public sculpture commissioned by a New York University, Picasso told Stanley Coren that the head of the sculpture is an abstract representation of his Afghan Hound named Kabul."
Meanderer
Supreme Member
It's Picasso Time!
"Think Picasso, think paintings. However, the Bonhams Paris Luxury sale has brought to light a rare wristwatch once donned by the towering Spanish artist. The watch may not have the scale of a Picasso painting but it’s every bit a stellar piece of art designed by independent Swiss watchmaker Michael Z. Berger. Call it fate or a rather unabashed attempt at self-branding but there are 12 letters in the artist’s full name which are turned into the hour markers in black capital letters."
(read more)
Pablo Picasso’s unique 1960s wristwatch showcasing the letters of his name sold for 20 times its presale estimate for $267,000
"Think Picasso, think paintings. However, the Bonhams Paris Luxury sale has brought to light a rare wristwatch once donned by the towering Spanish artist. The watch may not have the scale of a Picasso painting but it’s every bit a stellar piece of art designed by independent Swiss watchmaker Michael Z. Berger. Call it fate or a rather unabashed attempt at self-branding but there are 12 letters in the artist’s full name which are turned into the hour markers in black capital letters."
(read more)
Pablo Picasso’s unique 1960s wristwatch showcasing the letters of his name sold for 20 times its presale estimate for $267,000
Meanderer
Supreme Member
Sylvette David: The woman who inspired Picasso
"When Sylvette David was just 19, she met the ageing Picasso, who was immediately entranced and immortalised her in a series of works."
(Succession Picasso/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn)
(Succession Picasso/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn)
"But they never slept together – Sylvette was too timid even to pose for him in the nude – and the series petered out soon after he began a relationship with Roque, whom he would marry in 1961. As a result, the Sylvette series is often written off as a shallow interlude lacking Picasso’s characteristic emotional engagement with his subject. For some critics, it is also overly concerned with ephemeral trends – the ponytail, the hooded coat with large buttons, designed by her fiancé, worn by Sylvette in many of the paintings – to be considered serious art." (READ MORE)
Meanderer
Supreme Member
"Pablo Picasso is perhaps the most famous of all 20th century artists. During his lifetime, he created a large number of works of art - from paintings and sculptures, to ceramics and lithographs. His passion to experiment and his fearless use of different styles led to innovations that had a great impact on contemporary artists and made his name throughout the world." More
"Picasso said, "When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If a monk, you'll end up as the Pope!' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."