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Picasso Ceramics

As the scholarship on ceramics practice has increased, so has the recognition of Picasso as an important pioneer in the medium. A major traveling exhibition, Picasso and Ceramics (2004), argued that Picasso was one of the most important ceramists of the 20th century—an artist who worked firmly within the traditions of the medium, and yet pushed it forward with an innovative, conceptual approach. The result is a body of work that is every bit as visually distinctive as Picasso’s paintings and sculptures, but also consistently utilizes the unique shapes and properties of ceramics.

“Ceramics is a logical extension of Picasso’s oeuvre because it integrates issues that he has always dealt with in his art,” says Dr. Karen Kleinfelder, Professor of Art History at California State University, Long Beach, and a well-respected Picasso scholar. “There is a play between the two-dimensional surface and the three-dimensional vessel that the pure medium of painting does not allow. In Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso famously painted a woman’s front side and backside confronting the viewer simultaneously. On a ceramic object, he might show different aspects of a scene that become apparent as you view it in the round.”

Vase à la tête (Visage de profil)—which translates to Vase in the Shape of a Head (Face in Profile)—presents an excellent example of Picasso’s playful, multifaceted approach. This four-sided white vase was handmade by the artist himself in 1956, in an edition of 25. As the vase is turned, four different images look out from its rounded surface, forming four sides—a smiling sun, a human face, a woman’s front side, and a woman’s backside. The piece is charming and whimsical, at the same time that it shows off the vase’s splendid curves, and highlights its function as a vessel.

Other wonderful vase pieces include Pichet à glaçons (Tête de femme) [Ice Pitcher (Head of a Woman] (1952), in which a woman’s head forms the vessel’s body, and a handle and two spouts become her headgear; and Vase à deux anses hautes [Vase with two high handles] (1953), which resembles a woman standing arms akimbo, with two handles forming her arms, her breasts and legs prominently painted on the vessel, and her head opening haughtily up on top. Lauded as an innovator of form, these works show Picasso’s unique talent for wresting inventive and graceful narratives out of surprising contexts.

The round platter or bowl seems to be a surface on which Picasso particularly delighted in tweaking pictorial possibilities. Plongeurs Fond Blanc (Divers in White), a convex wall plaque in an edition of 500 dated 1956, is a remarkable piece that depicts a group of divers lounging by a pool or a lake. A diver in mid-arch atop a platform echoes the curvature of the top rim of the plaque, while a diver lounging on the ground accentuates its bottom edge. In Picador, a bowl in an edition of 500 dated 1953, a horseman lances a bull’s neck as a toreador awaits nearby. All three figures stand on a plain that lightly curves across the bottom of the bowl. On these objects and others like them, the formal possibilities of the piece are beautifully teased out, as a placid round surface is transformed into an arena filled with drama, action, and startling complexity.

-Carol Cheh

Polychrome bird, 1947 (AR 33)ceramic dish12 5/16 x 15 1/8 in.numbered 162/2003486

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The Pike, 1950(AR 103)ceramic dish15 1/4 in. diameternumbered 144/1503487

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Goat’s head in profile, 1952(AR 154)ceramic dish16 1/8 in. diameternumbered 26/1003488

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Still life with spoon, 1952(AR 165)ceramic dish13 in. diameternumbered 108/2003489

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Bright owl, 1955(AR 285)ceramic dish12 1/2 x 15 1/4 in.edition of 4503490

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Vase with bunch, 1956(AR 304)ceramic plate9 7/8 in. diameternumbered 51/2003491

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Bunch with apple, 1956(AR 307)ceramic plate9 7/8 in. diameteredition of 4003492

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Centaur, 1956(AR 339)ceramic dish16 1/2 in. diameternumbered 53/1003493

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Face in a square, 1956(AR 354)ceramic dish16 7/8 in. diameternumbered 82/1003494

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Face with Grid, 1956(AR 352)ceramic plate16 1/2 in. diameternumbered 62/1003495

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Tormented Face, 1956(AR 358)ceramic dish16 1/2 in. diameternumbered 46/1003496

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Tormented Face, 1956(AR 360)ceramic dish16 1/2 in. diameternumbered 95/1003497

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Divers, 1956(AR 377)ceramic plaque7 1/4 in. diameteredition of 5003498

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Tauromachy Scene, 1957(AR 393)ceramic plate9 in. diameternumbered 35/5003499

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Bull, rim with leaves, 1957(AR 394)ceramic plate9 in. diameternumbered 27/5003500

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Face with pursed nose, 1959(AR 414)ceramic plate9 3/4 in. diameternumbered 93/1003501

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Dove subject, 1959(AR 435)ceramic vase/pitcher8 x 4 1/2 x 6 in.numbered 498/5003502

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Big-eyed face, 1960(AR 443)ceramic plate9 3/4 in. diameternumbered 93/1003503

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Face no. 72 , 1963(AR 474)ceramic plate9 7/8 in. diameternumbered 84/1503504

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Bird no. 86, 1963(AR 484)ceramic plate9 7/8 in. diameternumbered 86/1503505

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Dishevelled woman, 1963(AR 510)ceramic plate10 1/4 in. diameternumbered 84/1003506

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Dishevelled woman, 1963(AR 510)ceramic plate10 1/4 in. diameternumbered 50/1003507

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Man’s face, 1966(AR 539)ceramic plaque6.5 x 4 in.numbered 356/5003508

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Man’s face, 1966(AR 539)ceramic plaque6.5 x 4 in.numbered 185/5003509

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Figures and cavalier, 1968(AR 540)ceramic plaque4 x 6.5 in.numbered 43/5003510

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Figures and cavalier, 1968(AR 540)ceramic plaque4 x 6.5 in.numbered 120/5003511

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Little bearded face, 1968(AR 558)ceramic plaque6 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.numbered 33/2003512

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Laughing mask, 1969(AR 562)ceramic plaque6 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.numbered 35/2003513

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Y-stylized face, 1968(AR 563)ceramic plaque6 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.numbered 24/2003514

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Face with circles, 1969(AR 612)ceramic pitcher11 3/8 x 7 in.numbered 202/5003515

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Tete de Faun, 1956(AR 346)ceramic brick7 5/8 x 7 5/8 in.signed ‘Picasso’3516

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Still life with spoon, 1952(AR 163)ceramic dish13 in. diameternumbered 38/1003517

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White ground fish, 1952(AR 168)ceramic dish13 1/5 x 16 1/2 in.numbered 61/2003518

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Picador, 1953(AR 211)ceramic cup6 1/2 in. diameternumbered 404/5003519

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Picador, 1953(AR 211)ceramic cup6 1/2 in. diameternumbered 123/5003520

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Tormented Faun’s face, 1956(AR 319)ceramic plate16 1/2 in. diameternumbered 15/1003521

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Face with spots, 1956(AR 349)ceramic plate16 7/16 in. diameternumbered 15/1003522

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Heads, 1956(AR 367)ceramic pitcher5 1/8 in.edition of 5003523

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Round-eyed face, 1960(AR 452)ceramic plate7 1/2 in. diameternumbered 62/1003524

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Round-eyed face, 1960(AR 452)ceramic plate7 1/2 in. diameternumbered 82/1003525

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Face No. 54, 1963(AR 467)ceramic plate9 3/4 in. diameternumbered 84/1503526

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Face No. 197, 1963(AR 494)ceramic plate9 3/4 in. diameternumbered 285/5003527

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Face with large nose, 1963(AR 503)ceramic plate10 3/4 in. diameternumbered 35/1003528

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Women and toreador, 1968(AR 541)ceramic plaque6 1/2 x 4 in.numbered 115/5003529

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Women and toreador, 1968(AR 541)ceramic plaque6 1/2 x 4 in.numbered 155/5003530

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Little sun, 1968(AR 544)ceramic plaque4 x 6 1/2 in.numbered 87/1003531

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Light Neptune, 1968(AR 578)ceramic plaque8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.numbered 9/1003535

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Flute player, 1951(AR 127)ceramic plate9 7/8 in. diameteredition of 403536

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Hands with fish, 1953(AR 214)ceramic bowl12 1/2 in. diameternumbered 31/2503538

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Face, 1955(AR 290)ceramic bowl4 in. diameteredition of 5003539

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Dancers and diaulos player, 1955(AR 341)ceramic plate12 1/2 x 15 1/2 in.numbered 86/1003540

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Big candy-striped vase, 1956(AR 370)ceramic vase12 1/2 x 15 1/2 in.numbered 17/253541

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Wood owl, 1969(AR 602)ceramic vase11 3/4 x 8 7/8 in.numbered 278/3503542

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Wood owl, 1969(AR 603)ceramic vase11 3/4 x 8 7/8 in.numbered 180/2503543

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Oval with horse, 1971(AR 622)ceramic tile6 x 6 in.numbered 228/5003544

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Little square with face, 1971(AR 633)ceramic tile6 x 6 in.numbered 176/5003545

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Reclining figure, 1950(AR 633)ceramic chard3 x 6 in.3547

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Ram’s head, 1950ceramic chardincised ‘Vallauris Juillet 1950’3548

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Chard, 1962ceramic charddated ‘15.5.62’3549

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Visage, 1965(AR 524)ceramic plate16 7/8 in. diameternumbered 29/1003550

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Pichet a Glacons, 1952(AR 142)ceramic pitcher8 x 15 x 12 3/4 in.numbered 12/1003483

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Picador, 1952(AR 162)ceramic pitcher5 1/4 in.edition of 5003484

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Heads, 1956(AR 367)ceramic pitcher5 1/8 in.edition of 5003485

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Picador, 1955(AR 289)ceramic cup5 in. diameteredition of 5003663

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Colombe de la Paix, 1955ceramic plate9 x 7 in.3664

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Face with herring-bone patterned mask , 1963(AR 501)ceramic plate10 1/4 in. diameternumbered 58/1003665

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Cavalier and horse, 1969(AR 594)ceramic plaque8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.numbered 59/1003666

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Picador, 1952(AR 162)ceramic pitcher5 1/4 in.edition of 5003667

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Owl Pitcher, 1969(AR 604)ceramic pitcher9 x 5 1/2 x 11 in.numbered 91/2503668

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Faun’s Head, 1955(AR 283)ceramic plate10 x 10 in.edition of 1503669

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Little square with sun, 1971(AR 631)ceramic tile6 x 6 in.numbered 184/5003670

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Lozenge with face, 1971(AR 627)ceramic tile6 x 6 in.numbered 239/5003671

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Toros, 1952(AR 161)ceramic plate7 7/8 in. diameteredition of 5003672

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Jacqueline’s Profile, 1956(AR 383)ceramic wall plaque7 1/4 in. diameteredition of 5003673

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Jacqueline’s Profile, 1956(AR 385)ceramic wall plaque7 1/4 in. diameteredition of 5003673

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Vase with two high handles, 1953(AR 213)ceramic wall plaque10 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 15 3/8 in.edition of 4003724

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