The Chicago Picasso made its debut in downtown Chicago in August 1967 and was immediately recognized as a supreme achievement in monumental sculpture and civic art. The capstone to Picasso’s long and fabled career as a sculptor and modernist, the sculpture has defined the city of Chicago for generations and stands as a peerless example of the union of modern art and civic architecture.
Art historian Patricia Stratton tells the inside story of the sculpture for the first time in The Chicago Picasso: A Point of Departure, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the famous unveiling. Relying on exclusive archival interviews and extensive research, all the controversial possibilities of the sculpture’s inspiration are explored. Stratton tells the full story of monumental achievement in all of its historical and artistic glory.
Patricia Stratton has told the story of the Picasso brilliantly—the artist, the architects, the civic ambition, the negotiations, the design and fabrication, the ownership, the controversy—all the elements that lie behind this most famous of all Chicago sculptures and its transformation from drawing and maquette to a monumental 162 tons of Cor-Ten steel standing 50 feet high. —John W. McCarter, Jr.
Patricia Stratton has just written an absorbing book on the story of Picasso's gift to Chicago.... Through her research she takes us into the curious world of Parisian art and Chicago politics that found a place for one of the most remarkable of Picasso’s sculptures ... modern, exciting and complex. —Thomas J. O'Gorman, Inside Publications
by Patricia Balton Stratton
The Chicago Picasso made its debut in downtown Chicago in August 1967 and was immediately recognized as a supreme achievement in monumental sculpture and civic art. The capstone to Picasso’s long and fabled career as a sculptor and modernist, the sculpture has defined the city of Chicago for generations and stands as a peerless example of the union of modern art and civic architecture.
Art historian Patricia Stratton tells the inside story of the sculpture for the first time in The Chicago Picasso: A Point of Departure, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the famous unveiling. Relying on exclusive archival interviews and extensive research, all the controversial possibilities of the sculpture’s inspiration are explored. Stratton tells the full story of monumental achievement in all of its historical and artistic glory.
Patricia Stratton has told the story of the Picasso brilliantly—the artist, the architects, the civic ambition, the negotiations, the design and fabrication, the ownership, the controversy—all the elements that lie behind this most famous of all Chicago sculptures and its transformation from drawing and maquette to a monumental 162 tons of Cor-Ten steel standing 50 feet high. —John W. McCarter, Jr.
Patricia Stratton has just written an absorbing book on the story of Picasso's gift to Chicago.... Through her research she takes us into the curious world of Parisian art and Chicago politics that found a place for one of the most remarkable of Picasso’s sculptures ... modern, exciting and complex. —Thomas J. O'Gorman, Inside Publications
