Grand oiseau

Standing at just under two feet tall, the present lot is an unique and striking example of Picasso’s post-war ceramics. Pottery became an important medium for Picasso in the years after the World War II, and an invitation by his friends, Suzanne and George Ramié, to work at Madoura, their studio in the south of France, was the impetus for a burst of extraordinary creative vitality. A sense of freedom after the oppressive years of the war and an intoxication with the Arcadian hedonism of Provenance are clear to see in these works.
Drawing on a range of influences from Antiquity, as seen in the present lot’s amphoral form, through to art from Africa and Southern Spain, Picasso embarked on an ambitious project of combining painting with sculpture. His ceramic art allowed viewers to experience the spatial qualities of painting as well as the multiple perspectives provided by a sculpture. This work, from circa 1950, is a wonderful demonstration of this approach. The form is one Picasso used only four times across his editioned ceramic oeuvre, a modernized and anthropomorphic version of a classical Hydria. The artist uses characteristic wit to transform the vessel into a bird. The swell of the vase’s body becomes the bird's breast and the arching handles the spread of its wings. With a few economical, almost crude brushstrokes we see the animal’s feathers and very character come alive on the surface. The bird’s grinning face peers out at the viewer from the center of the vase, a cheeky combination of whimsy and craftsmanship.
Picasso’s ceramics were in part inspired by his desire to democratize art, coming shortly after his joining the French Communist Party. At Madoura, he created recognizable, quotidian objects in series. This makes the present lot all the more remarkable as it is unique. Works on this grand a scale must be hand crafted and so do not lend themselves to mass production. This present work stands as a testament to intrepid creativity.