Picasso in the Park: Figure découpée l'Oiseau
Why is it significant?
Walk around the grey shape on the lawn and watch it change. From one side it is flat and angular, from another it seems to have a head, an eye, a tail... Children climb on its edges, dogs sniff its base, and most joggers run past without the faintest idea whose hand drew it. It is a Picasso.
Key Facts
| Place | Picasso in the Park: Figure découpée l'Oiseau |
|---|---|
| Address | Vondelpark, 1071 AA Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.35750, 4.86800 |
| Part of Walk | Amsterdam's Green Heart: Vondelpark, Oud-Zuid and the Concertgebouw |
| Generated | Generated |
Walk around the grey shape on the lawn and watch it change. From one side it is flat and angular, from another it seems to have a head, an eye, a tail... Children climb on its edges, dogs sniff its base, and most joggers run past without the faintest idea whose hand drew it.
It is a Picasso. Its official title is Figure découpée l'Oiseau, the cut-out figure of the bird, but Amsterdammers have long called it simply the Fish, which tells you everything about the gap between artists and the people who live with their work. Picasso gave the design to the park in 1965, to mark its hundredth birthday.
He did not pour the concrete himself. The sculpture was made by the Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, who worked with Picasso for years, turning his small drawings and paper cut-outs into monumental works using a technique of sandblasting concrete to reveal the gravel inside. Look closely at the surface and you will see those little stones, like a sketch carved into rock.
Here is something that is not on any sign. Picasso actually knew the Netherlands. In the summer of 1905, as a poor young painter, he spent a few weeks in the village of Schoorl, north of Amsterdam, painting Dutch girls in white lace caps. Sixty years later, the most famous artist alive sent the country a present.
It is also a reminder that public art in a park lives a harder life than art in a museum: rain, frost, climbing children, skateboards and selfie sticks, and concrete that has to be cleaned and repaired to stay looking like a Picasso. Before you go, step back a few paces, half close your eyes, and decide for yourself: bird, fish, or something Picasso never bothered to name. Now turn back east along the southern paths of the park, towards a round white building that looks as if it landed from outer space.