Incollect Magazine - Issue 4

2023 Incollect Magazine 115 Right: Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Picasso Editions Ceramic Dish, Madoura Picador, circa 1952. Edition of 500. Diameter: 6 in. Left: Detail of signature. Images courtesy of Pavilion Antiques & 20th Century. Picasso worked with timeless clay forms — jugs, pitchers, vases, and vessels of one kind or another. These were mostly made at the Madoura pottery studio in Vallauris, a famous pottery center in the south of France owned by artists Suzanne and Georges Ramié who set aside space in the studio for Picasso to work. Picasso first visited the studio in 1946 and over 24 years, until his death, made over 630 ceramic designs, some unique, others in editions and engraved with the Madoura atelier stamp. “Th i s i s one of t he most f amou s a r t i st collaborations of the 20th century in France,” says Deborah Colman, owner of Pavilion Antiques in Chicago. “It is thought that Picasso produced over 3,500 original editioned ceramic works.” The pieces that are most collectable she says are vases, pitchers, and plates that were made in limited editions and are signed and numbered. But even pieces made in large editions and not numbered but signed ‘Picasso Editions,’ Colman says, are quite desirable. Picasso painted the ceramics with ease, fluency and f lair. It is one of the reasons the ceramics are so dynamic and today meld gracefully into almost any home. “The more fantastic the drawing is and the most exuberant pieces always see the strongest prices,” Colman says. “Even better is if one has a piece included in the catalog raisonné by Alain Ramié.” Unique glazed ceramic works command a premium and have fetched up to $2.5 million at auction; three other pieces have fetched over a million at auction and seven ceramic works have sold for over $500,000 according to the Artnet price database. So what continues to drive the Picasso market endlessly forward 50 years after his death? “There is a difference between art and decoration,” Szoke says, “and that’s what makes Picasso so special. He was one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. He was not only a tremendous artist but he had his finger on the heartbeat of the times and his art, though not political, is a reflection of the times. His technical mastery is also unparalleled — no one was as technically astute as Picasso.”