Frank Gaydos on mon 12 apr 99
Here is a review of the Picasso ceramics show at the Metropolitan Museum in
NYC by Edward Sozanski of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Picasso: Painter and Sculptor in Clay," at the Metropolitan through June 6,
surveys his ceramic art. This is easily the more engaging and successful
show, in part because it addresses a provocative question: Is Picasso's
ceramic art significant, or is it no more than evidence of a casual pastime?
Picasso's ceramics have always been considered a sidelight of his career.
This show, organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in London, is the first to
give them major attention.
Picasso became active in clay during a relaxed and happy time of his life.
World War II had recently ended, he was living on the sunny Mediterranean
coast of France with a new, young companion, Francoise Gilot. He wasn't
working hard at painting and was open to diversion.
In the summer of 1946, responding to the casual suggestion of a friend, he
visited the Madoura pottery in Vallauris, a town in the hills above Cannes
that had long been a ceramics center. As Gilot described the visit in her
book, Life With Picasso, he decorated several plates, but didn't find his
introduction to clay stimulating.
The following summer he returned to Madoura, whose owners, a couple named
Ramie, invited him to continue his tentative exploration of clay art.
Assisted by a skilled craftsman who produced thrown forms on the potter's
wheel and bolstered by a recently acquired knowledge of painting with slips
and enamels, Picasso began to work in earnest.
The exhibition contains about 170 pieces. Writing in the exhibition catalog,
Claude Picasso, the artist's son, estimates that his father created more
than 3,500 ceramic objects over about 20 years. The exhibition checklist
reflects the fact that his output was heaviest from 1947 to about 1952.
Picasso worked with standard production ware, but he never threw a pot or
press-molded a plate. The forms were created in earthenware clay by Madoura
potters, especially one named Jules Agard. Picasso altered the green ware by
pinching, folding and cutting, and by combining forms into novel composites.
In his hands, common functional ware such as pitchers and amphorae became
human figures and animals. His painting with slips, glazes and oxides
usually facilitated these transformations. Plates and tiles became
substitutes for canvases.
Ceramics demands considerable technical skill and knowledge. Picasso never
acquired much of either; he was primarily concerned with painting, and with
playfully sculptural alterations. The fluid character of his brushwork
indicates that he worked quickly, which is why he was able to finish so many
pieces.
Many of these reflect an awareness of older ceramic traditions, particularly
the work of the 16th-century French ceramist Bernard Palissy. He embellished
his plates with three-dimensional objects and creatures such as snakes,
insects and fish. Picasso added similar high-relief parts to his painted
plates, although they're more crudely executed than Palissy's.
Picasso's inventiveness in turning handles into arms and vessels into birds
is ubiquitous, ingenious and witty. His clay objects communicate a joy in
the making not often found in his other work.
He was masterful at identifying potential transformations, which is manifest
in the way he used parts of several vessels to create elemental,
Brancusi-like birds. The best of these is an all-black piece with an
egg-shaped body set 45 degrees on a cylindrical foot.
His strongest pieces, the ones that make a noteworthy contribution to
ceramic art, are those in which he exercises some decorative restraint, or
better yet, eliminates painting altogether. The black bird is one such
piece. A "zoomorphic vase," with two looping arms and finished in a creamy
white crackle graze, is another.
Picasso didn't usually leave ceramics bare, however. With the volumetric
pieces, he tended to cover the entire surface. Often his painting is
excessively cluttered and overwhelms, or even obliterates, the forms.
Sometimes the painted additions don't fit comfortably on the surfaces.
When he strikes a balance, though, the pieces sing. For example, several
"standing women" made from vase forms and slip-painted with brown horizontal
stripes enhance the surface without dominating it. He painted a jug with
three protruding loops on each side into an insect by extending the loops
into legs.
Like his sculptures, his painted plates, made from standard blanks, have a
loose, improvisational quality, like sketches made on paper tablecloths. The
best flat pieces are wall-mounted arrays of tiles. Picasso painted these
more deliberately, and took more care with composition and color.
Picasso's ceramics are fun to look at, but that's also a problem - only a
relatively small number display deep engagement with the medium. Clay was a
passing fancy that held his interest for perhaps 10 years. He may have left
his mark on the medium, but he didn't extend it significantly
Frank Gaydos
510 Gerritt St.
Philadelphia,Pa.
19147-5821 USA
fgaydos@erols.com
http://www.erols.com/fgaydos
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