Ceramics Saturdays: Picasso

I’ve never been a fan of Picasso’s paintings, certainly not of his treatment of women, but I surprised myself by finding his ceramics utterly charming when I first encountered them in the Albertina in Vienna several years ago (where I took the picture of the goat dish above). They’re joyful, whimsical even, but paradoxically spare and elegant in the way they use space and texture to achieve these effects. They don’t feel like he’s trying too hard, which is how his paintings always struck me. Perhaps not coincidentally, by and large the ceramics treat natural and mystical themes rather than reworking his obsession with the female nude. Maybe he was somehow able to draw on a cleaner source of artistic energy when he worked in clay, rather than “ble[eding] dry” the women in his life. There’s a new exhibition coming on at the Nevada Museum of Art if you’d like to see a few more examples of Picasso’s ceramics.