Pablo Picasso in Barcelona - ceramics

Ceramics by Picasso at the Picasso Museum, Barcelona.

Picasso came into direct contact with ceramics for the first time in 1946, in Vallauris on the French Riviera, following a visit to the Madoura ceramics workshop. The enormous interest and curiosity that this ancient art aroused in him made him want to learn its secrets and, above all, include it in his work as another artistic medium.

Ceramics opened up a new field of experimentation for Picasso since the malleability of raw clay makes it an optimal material for all kinds of transformations and metamorphoses and an ideal painting support. Once he had mastered the secrets of the decorative techniques and materials of pottery (oxides, enamel, slips), Picasso injected new life into the pitchers, plates and pots that came out of the Madoura workshop by applying zoomorphic iconographies such as fish and owls, and mythological themes with Mediterranean roots (fauns, nymphs, centaurs), or he metamorphosed plates and dishes into faces and bullrings.

Profiles of Women and Owl, (pink grogged earthenware, decorated with black slip)

Face, 1959, (thrown red earthenware, decorated with black slip and sgraffito)

Owl, (thrown white earthenware, decorated with red and black slips and incised)

Three Nudes on Light Ground, (thrown white earthenware, decorated with slips and oxides, incised, partial brushed transparent glaze, beige-brown patina and coloured glaze)

Owl, (thrown red earthenware, incised, decorated with slips and oxides, sgraffito and partial brushed transparent glaze and black patina).

Ring of Dancers, (thrown red earthenware, decorated with black and white slips and partial brushed transparent glaze)

Child in a Bed or Claude with Mumps, 1948, (oil on canvas)

Jacqueline, 1967, (oil on canvas)

Sun and Bull, (thrown red earthenware, decorated with slips, oxide, ceramic pastels, sgraffito and partial brushed transparent glaze)

Face, (white earthenware, decorated with oxides and dipped transparent glaze)

Two Fish, (white earthenware, decorated with slips and white glaze, dark patina)

Dancing Centaur, Black background, 1948, (lithograph)

Face of a Man, (press-moulded white earthenware, decorated with slips and oxides, gouged, punches and brushed transparent glaze)

Face of a Black Faun, (press-moulded white earthenware, decorated with slips, punched, incised and dipped transparent glaze)

Head of a Faun, (thrown white earthenware, decorated with slips and oxides and brushed transparent glaze)