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Artworks
Pablo Picasso
Grand Vase aux fleurs, c. 1950-59Painted white terracottaHeight: 63.5 cm (25 in.)Stamped 'MADOURA PLEIN' (on the underside of the vase)66296© 2020 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkFurther images
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Executed in Vallauris circa 1950-59, this work is unique. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Pablo Picasso began to work seriously with ceramics in 1946...Executed in Vallauris circa 1950-59, this work is unique. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Pablo Picasso began to work seriously with ceramics in 1946 after he visited a Madoura pottery workshop in Vallauris on a trip to the Côte d'Azur. The owners of the workshop, Suzanne and Georges Ramié, invited Picasso to practice in their workshop. While visiting Vallauris, Picasso developed his pottery skills and painted pots and vases thrown by local craftsmen. From the late 1940s through 1970s, Picasso produced an abundant array of ceramics–jugs, bowls, plates, glazed tiles–featuring nudes, clowns, musicians, animals, and mythical creatures like fauns and centaurs. Picasso masterfully fused painting and sculpture in his ceramics, working with the organic shape of the vessel and creating a novel iconography within his oeuvre.Grand Vase aux fleurs is illusory in its iconography. Taupe, teal, white and terracotta hues animate abstracted flowers and stems. In contrast, the bulbous base of the vase includes thin geometric lines that emphasize the vessel’s traditional design. This vase was of particular significance to the artist and he kept it in his personal collection until his death. There is a distinct playfulness to Picasso’s ceramic oeuvre. As critic Roberta Smith wrote in a New York Times review of the 1999 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of the artists’ ceramic work, “Picasso certainly seems to have enjoyed carving this particular notch in his cane of art conquests. That he did so during one of the happiest periods of his life may partly account for the unclouded lightness of these charming figures, wittily decorated plates, casseroles, pitchers, masks and glazed-tile paintings.”
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Estate of Jacqueline Picasso (wife of the artist)
Catherine Hutin-Blay (by descent from the above)
Etienne Sassi, Inc.
Hammer Galleries, New York (acquired by 2008)
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above; sale: Sotheby's New York, May 6, 2010, lot 222)
Private Collection
Exhibitions
Vallauris, Galerie Sassi Milici, Hommage à Jacqueline Picasso, 1990, no. 64
Roslyn Harbor, Nassau County Museum of Art, Picasso - Unique ceramics, 1996-97
New York, Hammer Galleries, Picasso: Unique ceramics from the estate of Jacqueline Picasso, 1999
Vallauris, Musée Magnelli, Musée de la Céramique, Picasso, céramiste à Vallauris : pièces uniques, 2004
Roslyn Harbor, Nassau Country Museum of Art, Picasso, 2005New York, Hammer Galleries, 19th & 20th Century European and American Masters, 2008
Literature
E. Mallen, ed., Online Picasso Project, Sam Houston State University, 1997-2020, no. 48-190 (dated 1948; accessed October 19, 2020) -
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