Chouette

One of Picasso's early experiments at the Madoura pottery, Chouette depicts a pensive little owl, lyrically rendered in rich glazes on a large oval charger. Picasso was known to surround himself with birds, and in 1946, during his residency at the Musée d'Antibes with his mistress Françoise Gilot, the sculptor and photographer Michel Sima gave him an injured owl as a pet. As Gilot recalled, 'Pablo loved to surround himself with birds and animals. In general, they were exempt from the suspicion with which he regarded his other friends' (F. Gilot, Life with Picasso, London, 1965, p.144). The artist grew very fond of the owl, despite its ill-nature, and it became an enduring image in his art, particularly his ceramics. With his encyclopaedic knowledge of art historical motifs, the decorative history and mythological symbolism of the bird was unlikely to have escaped Picasso. Associated with the Greek goddess Athena, the owl is a symbol of wisdom, philosophy and the arts. Created in the year Picasso moved to Vallauris to dedicate himself to his ceramic work, Chouette's simplified form of a bird, deftly executed in curlicue brushstrokes and framed by a stylised foliate design, lends a whimiscal new twist to the weight of artistic tradition and stands as a personal symbol of a life dedicated to creativity.