The smile beaming at you from the ceramic pitcher is unmistakably Picasso. A handle for its nose, “Four Faces” radiates with his creative DNA.
The work is one of 48 of Pablo Picasso’s edition ceramic pieces — engaging plates, pitchers, and vases — on display in “Pablo Picasso: 25 Years of Edition Ceramics from The Rosenbaum Collection.” The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science presents this critically acclaimed traveling exhibition through July 20, 2025. (The museum offers free admission Friday, June 6.)
Much of Evansville’s buzz around Picasso came from the museum’s June 2024 exhibit of his work, “Seated Woman in Red Hat.” From the museum’s permanent collection, the portrait was created in gemmail, an arrangement of layered glass pieces. The museum has since shared other Picasso treasures, such as the 24 prints exhibited in “Celebrating Picasso’s Legacy: Works on Paper.”
Now comes the artist’s edition ceramics works, an ideal complement to the “Seated Woman.” Like her, these ceramics pieces delight, while demonstrating a little-known side of Picasso’s artistic versatility.
By the time he was 63, the Spanish artist already had done it all. He was internationally renowned as a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. Then, he fell in love with Madoura ceramics at a craft fair in Vallauris, France. He asked Georges and Suzanne Ramie, who operated the studio, if he could try his hand at ceramics.
“He was still exploring, still trying new media,” says Cheyenne E. Miller, Virginia G. Schroeder Curator of Art for the Evansville Museum. “His personal relationship with the Ramies and their studio lasted a quarter of a century. He became a master ceramicist, creating 3,500 unique ceramic works and 600 editioned pieces with the Madoura studio.”
Owls, faces, and female figures are his recurring subjects here. Although displaying Picasso’s range in ceramics, the exhibition still surprises.
“Everything is here, from abstraction to stylistic shorthand,” Miller says. Some are original works he created, while others were pieces ready to be fired that he painted. All were produced in editions. “In the end, they are all individual pieces, not exactly the same,” she says.
The exhibition was organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions in Los Angeles, California, and made possible through the support of presenting sponsors Mr. and Mrs. G. Richard Eykamp and Kenny Kent Lexus, and others.
Want to get your hands on clay? Consider a class at the New Harmony Clay Project, or try the Jasper Arts Clay Open Studio. (Note that Jasper, Indiana, is in the Eastern Time Zone.)
