Pablo Picasso

Overview
Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) work spans some of the most crucial artistic movements of his time – yet his oeuvre resists categorisation. His  legendary status is in part due to his unrivaled involvement in the shifts and changes that make up the history of twentieth century art.

It is only more recently that his ceramics, a key aspect of his prolific career, have begun to garner the public attention they deserve. His expansive work in ceramics was sparked by a visit to the Madoura pottery workshop near his summer home in the south of France, the beginning of a collaboration that lasted over two decades until his death in 1973. 

Picasso's ceramics offer a key insight into what marks him out as one of the most inventive artists of the modern era. Often incorporating scraps of waste clay, or painting over existing pottery with colorful Mediterranean motifs, Picasso proved the ceramic process to be worthy of fine art status. Seeing in ceramics the opportunity for works of art to reach a wider audience, Picasso re-edited some of the 633 ceramics he produced over the period, turning them into original editions.

Picasso’s ceramics are frequently the subject of their own exhibition, such as at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, in 2018, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Cheongju, which ends January 2024.
Works