PICASSO 25 Y Ears of Editi on Ceramics from the Rosenbaum Collection
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PICASSO 25 YeArS Of edITI On CerAmICS frOm The rOSenbAum COlleCTIOn Carnegie Arts Center Turlock, CA September 15, 2013 - January 15, 2014 PICASS O 25 YeArS Of edItIOn CerAmICS elcome to the Carnegie Arts Center. We are pleased Wto present Picasso: 25 Years of Edition Ceramics from the Rosenbaum Collection. The exhibition includes 46 ceramic works created by Pablo Picasso in collaboration with Georges and Suzanne ramie and the artisans at their madoura pottery in Vallauris, france, between 1947 and 1971. Internationally famed for his paintings, sculptures, and graphics, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was long intrigued by ceramics. After seeing the works of the madoura potters at a crafts fair in 1946, he asked Georges and Suzanne ramie, owners of the studio, to provide him with the opportunity to work with Picasso and madame ramie examine a plate which has ceramics. The workshop arrangement they established--where just come from an oven at the madoura Pottery. an artist is paired with highly trained assistants to produce finished works--was a familiar one to Picasso who had similar experiences working in printmaking and sculpture workshops. for the next 25 years, he closely collaborated with madoura pottery, producing his own thrown pieces as well as the edition ceramics seen in this ex hibit. The madoura Pottery, Vallauris, france, 1947. Picasso and the madoura studio ultimately produced 633 different plates, bowls, vases and pitchers in limited editions ranging from 25 to 500. Picasso's involvement in producing the objects varied. he sometimes made the clay molds used for the designs, at other times he painted plates or pitchers that subsequently served as models for the editions. Picasso and madoura's artisans then finished the prototypes and the editions were made. Two of the prototype works made by Picasso are included in this exhibition. Picasso plates at the madoura Pottery. 1 PICASS O 25 YeArS Of edItIOn CerAmICS The works in the exhibition are largely drawn from the collection of marvin rosenbaum of boca raton, fl. mr. rosenbaum has been collecting Picasso ceramics for over 40 years and has become a well-respected expert in the field, possessing more than 100 pieces in his collection. We extend our gratitude to him as well as to Jean Gibran who has loaned Bunch with Apple , 1956 (A.r. 305). Keiko banks has further enhanced the exhibit by loaning the two unique, prototype works, fish in Profile, 1951 (A.r. 130 and A.r. 132). All exhib itions represent the collective efforts of many people. Picasso decorates a plate at the madoura We would like to thank the exhibit curator, Gerald nordland, Pottery. noted author and independent curator, and former director of the San francisco Art museum, the milwaukee Art museum, and the Wight Gallery, uClA. Our gratitude is also extended to Jeani ferrari, President of the board, whose energy and encouragement make many things possible. Priscilla Peters worked tirelessly with her program committee to develop the engaging, complementary programs being offered throughout the period the exhibit is on view. Cliff bailey, lisa mcdermott, and nic Webber focused on the facility and the many demanding details of installing an exhibit such as this. We are especially indebted to our sponsors who made it possible, including Prime Shine Car Wash, hilmar Cheese Company, Inc., Gemperle family farms, Winton Ireland Strom & Green, Turlock Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitors bureau, the John and Jeani ferrari family foundation, deborah Kavasch and John marvin, Jaureguy's Paint & decorating, lancaster Painting, the members of the Carnegie Arts Center, and the modesto bee. We thank you for coming and hope that you will return often. rebecca Phillips Abbott executive director and Curator Alain ramie, son of Georges and Suzanne ramie, and marvin rosenbaum at the madoura Pottery. 2 The ediTion CeramiCs of Pablo PiCasso by Gerald nordland t the close of the Second World War in 1945, Pablo Picasso, at the age of 63, enjoyed his recognition A as one of the leading painters, sculptors and graphic artists of the 20th century. he was hailed for his steadfast support of the french resistance and his refusal to collaborate with the German occupiers. he had been acclaimed as a young romantic painter—(blue and rose Periods); celebrated as a revolutionary formal innovator (Cubist painting and sculpture); lauded as co-inventor of open-form welded metal sculpture (with fellow Spaniard, Julio Gonzalez); recognized for having studied and mastered the encyclopedic collections of the louvre; and praised as a prolific master of etching, drypoint and aquatint printing techniques. he was soon to enter into an ambitious series of lithographic studies—The bull; Portraits of francoise; Arcadian revels of centaurs and bacchantes; and homages to lucas Cranach, which would make it clear that he was equally resourceful and virtuosic in the lithographic medium. Picasso epitomized the renaissance ideal of an artist, working in every medium with skill, intelligence and energy. he vacationed at Golfe-Juan, on the mediterranean in 1945 and again in 1946—his first visits since the war. In Summer 1946, while attending an exhibition of local handcrafts in nearby Vallauris, he met Georges and Suzanne ramie, owners of the madoura Pottery. he asked permission to make a few works and was willingly assigned a spot at the bench, where he shaped three pieces. In September, at Golfe-Juan, he complained to the Curator of the musee d’Antibes (Grimaldi Palace), m. dor de la Souchere, that he had never been offered a great space where he could paint. On the spot, the curator told him that he could have a studio in the museum. Picasso promptly ordered materia ls— sheetings of asbestos and plywood, and a supply of marine paints—all that could be obtained at that post-war time. In less than four months—September through december—Picasso created all but one of the 25 paintings, 33 drawings, and 11 oils on paper, now on view at the Grimaldi-Picasso museum, Antibes. his mediterranean subjects included fish, urchins, squid, fishermen, hungry eaters of fish, and high spirited centaurs and fauns enacting and celebrating the Joie de Vivre. When Picasso returned to Vallauris in Summer 1947, he was pleased to find his three earlier ceramic experiments, and he carried with him a packet of drawings which he thought might come to life in clay. his pleasure in working with clay and with the owners and staff of the madoura Pottery resulted in a working environment familiar to him from his experience in etching and sculpture workshops. The ramies and staff were delighted to apply their knowledge and technical skills to help Picasso realize his projects. he devoted increasing amounts of time to the work, including a large part of 1947, and intermittently during vacations for 25 years, but never became capable of throwing a pot on the wheel, or solving the technical problems of glazes and multiple firings. he began directly with a lump of clay to model a bird, a pigeon, an owl, a dove. he was given advice and assistance with colors, glazing and firing. he asked for a supply of Spanish Platters (rectangular plates with rounded corners), which he decorated simply in a long and inventive series of face plates treated like canvasses with sgrafito, colored fields, borders, and decorative reinforcements. he turned to common pignate (casserole forms) from stock, and decorated numbers of them with delightful friezes of dancing figures. he selected pitchers from stock to decorate, emphasizing their globular character with both the chosen colors and the decorative graphic geometry. As he worked, Picasso learned to ask for more specific ceramic pieces: round and oblong dishes, plates both standard and turned, round, square, oval and round/square. he used vase forms, both standard and turned, floor tiles, wall plaques in tile, and earthenware, round, rectangular and hexagonal, and occasionally inverted dishes to work on the reverse in shaping convex wall plaques. he came upon discarded fire bricks and occasional shards of broken pots which inspired him to recycle and redeem these suggestive forms in an unprecedented fashion. In his nearly twenty five years at Vallauris he produced, invented, and discovered literally thousands of unique creations. 3 Picasso was a quick worker, decisive in mind and hand, who remembered the ramies’ teachings and suggestions, and began to communicate in their ceramic language. he devoted long hours to developing ideas and multiple variations upon them. Soon he began to find among his accumulating works pieces which embodied a vitality that he felt might be produced in an edition. he discussed with the ramies how such editions might be made, and as a result they evolved a series of positive stamps for the underside of such works, which proclaimed the work as an original, an authorized copy, or a numbered and/or signed example of “Picasso editions” made from a plaster original plate, and imprinted in the manner of an edition of multiple original etchings. The ramies developed technical procedures to insure precision of form and accurate rendering of the drawn designs and colors. A genuine replica of an original by an accurate model of the exact contour and coloring, created by hand and using materials and methods of which very precise reference notes were made at the time the original piece was created. The successful work received the proper impressed stamp of authenticity. Picasso retained most of the unique works, making occasional presents to friends and to the muses d’Antibes, along with a few major sculptures. After his death an important gift of ceramics was made to the Picasso museum, Paris, with the remainder divided among his heirs. Picasso soon learned that he could cap a tall vase or bottle and freely manipulate its shape into proportions reflective of a female figure—amplify a hip, squeeze a waist, shape the breasts and throat—prior to color- glazing and firing.