Image: Image reproduction rights managed by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; institutional source link provided
View source →Pablo Picasso, January 4, 1930
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
66 × 49.2 cm (26 × 19 3/8 in.)
Style
Surrealist-influenced modernism
Decade
1930s
The official Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois record identifies Abstraction: Background with Blue Cloudy Sky as a Pablo Picasso painting, dated January 4, 1930, in Oil on panel. This catalog entry preserves the holding institution’s title and object metadata rather than inferring undocumented imagery, sitter identity, or artist intent.
Abstraction: Background with Blue Cloudy Sky is grouped under Surrealist Period for gallery navigation using the date published by Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. This period label provides high-level art-historical orientation and does not supersede the primary collection record. The institutional credit line is: Gift of Florene May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx; Wilson L. Mead Fund.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →2026 Estimated Value
Public collection / market value not asserted
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
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1932 · same style · same era
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1934 · same style · same era
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1934 · same style · same era
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June 24, 1933 · same style · same era
Minotaur Caressing Sleeping Woman, from the Vollard Suite
June 18, 1933, printed and published 1939 · same style · same era
Minotaur and Wounded Horse
April 17, 1935 · same style · same era
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Picasso: A Life Documentary
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