Clay and plaster were the user-friendly materials chosen to capture and immortalise Picasso’s experiments in sculpture at Boisgeloup. For this piece, Picasso combined a common vase and plaster frame to produce the typical shape of a jug. Vase-Pichet builds on recurring themes that crop up time and again in Picasso’s post-Cubist work, one of these being the construction of sculptures using a variety of materials and objects. By applying these techniques of construction, embossing and imprint – corrugated cardboard was used for this piece – Picasso creates the illusion of pottery. The result is an enduring, non-functional object, a ceramic sculpture that does not seem to belong to any civilisation or period of history.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Vase-Pichet – (Vase Jug)
1950
Ochre clay and white clay imprint of cardboard, assembled using plaster. Matt.
Inheritance inventory 56228
Private collection © M. Maurice Aeschimann
© Sucession Picasso 2017