Resolution
WHEREAS, August 15, 2017, officially marks the 50" Anniversary of the official unveiling of the "Chicago Picasso" in the Chicago Civic Center Plaza (now the Richard J. Daley Center); and
WHEREAS, the Chicago City Council has been informed of this anniversary by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, in 1963 the Chicago Public Building Commission chaired by Mayor Richard J. Daley, agreed to erect a Civic Center to house the law courts, and governmental offices opposite City Hall and the Cook County Building; and
WHEREAS, before construction began, the three project design architects, CF. Murphy Associates; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and Loebl, Schlossman, Bennett and Dart decided upon the addition of significant work of public art to grace the Civic Center Plaza facing Washington Street; and
WHEREAS, the architects announced their intention to award the commission to the most famous living artist to design the sculpture; and
WHEREAS, Pablo Picasso, the renowned Spanish, painter, sculptor, poet and playwright and founder of the Cubist movement in the art world, became their unanimous choice through the urging of Richard Bennett who wrote Picasso a poem asking him to involve himself in the creation of the work; and
WHEREAS, William E. Hartmann of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, so instrumental in facilitating the creation of the Chicago Picasso, was presented with a Medal of Merit by the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Pablo Picasso completed a maquette of the 162-ton, fifty-foot sculpture in 1965 and approved the final rendering in 1966; and
WHEREAS, Pablo Picasso refused an honorarium payment of $100,000, and instead expressed his wish to present his work as his gift to the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, three charitable foundations, the Woods Charitable Fund, the Field Foundation and the Chauncey and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation, funded the entire cost of construction of the sculpture, S351,959.17; and
WHEREAS, the American Bridge Company, a division of United States Steel Corporation in Gary, Indiana, fabricated the Chicago Picasso utilizing durable COR-TEN steel; and
WHEREAS, ground was broken for the Chicago Picasso on May 25, 1967; and
WHEREAS, before a large assemblage in the Civic Center Plaza, including Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks who read an original poem for the occasion, Roger L. Stevens, Chairman of the National Council on the Arts, Lieutenant Governor Sam Shapiro and many dignitaries, Mayor Richard J. Daley formally dedicated the Chicago Picasso on August 15, 1967; and
WHEREAS, following the unveiling public reaction to the sculpture was decidedly mixed, leaving many citizens of Chicago puzzled and disturbed by the symbolism and meaning of the artwork; and
WHEREAS, Mayor Richard J. Daley expressed the prophetic opinion that "what may seem strange today will be familiar tomorrow;"' and
WHEREAS, although Pablo Picasso never explained his inspiration for the unusual design, his grandson Olivier Widmaier Picasso, revealed in 2004, his belief that the sculpture was inspired by Sylvette David, a nineteen-year-old French woman who had posed for Picasso in 1954; and
WHEREAS, over time, criticism of the Chicago Picasso waned, and in recent decades it has become an enduring symbol of Chicago and an important, historic structure unique to the city and universally enjoyed by generations of residents; and
WHEREAS, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Chicago Picasso in this, the ''Year of Public Art 50x 50 Initiative," a reenactment of the unveiling of the sculpture will take place in the Richard J. Daley Center on August 8, 2017, featuring performers standing in for Mayor Daley, William E. Hartmann Gwendolyn Brooks and other prominent civic leaders in attendance that day; and
WHEREAS, Paul Durica, a teacher, writer, historian and creator of a number of public history programs in Chicago conceived this commemoration in conjunction with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events' Year of Public Art 50 x 50 Initiative; and now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council assembled this twenty-sixth day of July 2017, do hereby recognize, congratulate and thank Paul Durica and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events for conceiving this ceremonial tribute and re-enactment to the famed sculptor Pablo Picasso, and the internationally recognized artwork that has graced the plaza of The Richard J. Daley Center for fifty years; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that suitable copies of this resolution be presented to Paul Durica and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
