''Bull's Head'' (french: Tête de taureau) is a found object artwork by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, created in 1942 from the seat and handlebars of a bicycle. It is described by

Roland Penrose Sir Roland Algernon Penrose (14 October 1900 – 23 April 1984) was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom. During the Second World ...

as Picasso's most famous discovery, a simple yet "astonishingly complete" metamorphosis. Picasso described the artwork in 1943 to visiting photographer George Brassaï, saying:

Guess how I made the bull's head? One day, in a pile of objects all jumbled up together, I found an old bicycle seat right next to a rusty set of handlebars. In a flash, they joined together in my head. The idea of the ''Bull's Head'' came to me before I had a chance to think. All I did was weld them together... utif you were only to see the bull's head and not the bicycle seat and handlebars that form it, the sculpture would lose some of its impact."

In 1944, catalogued as ''Bicycle Seat'', the sculpture was displayed at the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

in Paris together with another 78 works. Visitors were shocked by Picasso's new works and a demonstration took place, during which ''Bicycle Seat'' was one of the pieces removed from the wall. ''Bull's Head'' is described by art critic Eric Gibson as unique amongst Picasso's sculptures for its 'transparency' - the constituent found objects are not disguised. He says the sculpture is "a moment of wit and whimsy ...both childlike and highly sophisticated in its simplicity, it stands as an assertion of the transforming power of the human imagination at a time when human values were under siege." The sculpture is in the permanent collection of the Picasso Museum in Paris.Pablo Picasso, ''Tête de taureau (Bull's Head)'', Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais
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References

{{authority control Sculptures by Pablo Picasso 1942 sculptures Found object Cattle in art