“Making pottery was a unique experience for [Picasso]. He became totally absorbed by it, shutting out all the disturbances of the outside world.”
—Pierre Daix
It is in Pablo Picasso’s ceramics that we see the artist’s greatest sense of freedom through consistent experimentation. Picasso saw himself as an apprentice in his later years, and approached the medium with a renewed energy that matched the artistic fervor of his youth. Whereas a traditional ceramicist might discard results deemed unsuccessful, Picasso’s unexpected outcomes were met with surprise – and joy. Unlike paint, the artist could never predict with full certainty how the glazes and metal oxides would join, retrench, or blend, nor the exact appearance of colors before their removal from the kiln. Because of this, Picasso became enamored of working in ceramic as he was forced to embrace change more than ever before, creating an extraordinarily challenging creative tension between artist and medium.
Picasso’s first interactions with clay coincided with an immense change and renewal within his personal life. In 1946, Picasso began a new relationship with Françoise Gilot, with whom he relocated to the South of France after holidaying in Vallauris. The small village facilitated Picasso’s introduction to Georges and Suzanne Ramié and their Madoura studio. The Ramiés shared their vast knowledge of the craft with Picasso, and this artistic camaraderie launched what would become Picasso’s twenty-five yearlong preoccupation with ceramics, producing 3,500 creations in clay between 1947 and 1971.
Picasso’s engagement with ceramics presented a challenge to the artist who, prior to arriving in the Madoura studio, had no formal training in the discipline. Despite the obstacles of working in the new medium, Picasso tackled this new adventure with prodigious creative imagination and embraced the unpredictable nature of the kiln. He began molding utilitarian objects such as bowls and plates through the simple yet painstaking method of replicating original objects by hand, as close to their likeness as possible.
As Picasso became more familiar with the medium, he began to develop an aesthetic poised between painting and sculpture. The continual experimentation with clay released in Picasso a great deal of liberation. Figuration emerged in exuberant faces, varying from cheerful applications of colorful glazes to fine delineations of detailed line that echo his paintings. Picasso drew inspiration from the women in his life, Françoise Gilot and later his final great love, Jacqueline Roque, who he met while working in the Madoura studio in 1952. The latter, whose large eyes and dark complexion are rendered in playful spirit, reflect the artist’s newfound joie de vivre in his later life.
