The Chicago Picasso (Untitled Monumental Sculpture)

Pablo Picasso, 1967

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About This Work

Standing 50 feet tall and weighing 162 tons, this monumental Cor-Ten steel sculpture was Picasso's gift to the city of Chicago. He refused the $100,000 commission fee, donating the work outright. The sculpture's subject is deliberately ambiguous — viewers have identified in it a woman, a dog, an Afghan hound, a baboon, or a bird. Picasso never revealed his intention, allowing the work to remain an open question.

The Chicago Picasso was unveiled on August 15, 1967, to a crowd of 50,000 people. It was a transformative moment for public art in America, demonstrating that abstract, challenging sculpture could be embraced by a major city. It directly inspired a wave of public sculpture commissions across the United States in the following decades.

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