It must be stated right here that Picasso never actually worked on the wheel. But still, he worked with clay. Léopold L. Foulem, a co-curator of this major exhibit and a ceramic artist, stated that Picasso may have lacked actual experience on the wheel, but he was a true ceramic artist, nevertheless. Foulem should know. He spent 20 years studying Picasso's ceramics, which allows him to interpret the artist's ceramic work in a fresh light and to make such a profound claim.

Picasso created more than 4,000 ceramics, about double of what Miro produced. The difference between the two artists was not only that Miro knew how to employ the wheel to create vessels and objects himself, but that his works were always considered art, while Picasso's were seen quite differently. His method involved co-opting freshly thrown or drying pots and plates from the racks at Madoura pottery in Vallauris, Provence. What he took of the racks at Madoura he then reshaped and painted to suit his needs. As Foulem pointed out, most of Picasso's ceramics were viewed by others, who had little real knowledge of his tremendous output and variety of creations, as utilitarian objects rather than art. The exhibit offers a chance to change that view.

The outcome of this plundering of the racks at Madoura is often exhilarating, never dull, and certainly highly stimulating. What is more important, however, is that the curators of this exhibition, on show at the University of Toronto Art Centre, have managed to reveal to us that these ceramics were no side show, that they were in no way related to the carelessly thrown out drawings on napkins, for which Picasso had a dubious reputation in his later years. Of course, being Picasso, we are not spared the odd joke in these works, which were created, however, in dead earnest, meant to last, and to be taken seriously.

This show lets us feel Picasso's enjoyment of working with clay. Anyone, who has ever handled this earthen substance, will know the sensualness of this material as one's hand mould it into a variety of shapes and vessels. Picasso obviously responded to the material in a unique way suited to his way of visualizing the world, and in the process gave us ceramics that appeal to us on several levels, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. A close look at a bowl, made by van Dongen, but painted by Picasso, incorporates all three of these levels. It shows hands grappling with fish, which are as slippery and as hard to hold as slippery clay.

His work takes us on a journey from antiquity to the present because he drew on the rich and grand heritage of pottery in the Mediterranean area. By using vessels of similar shape to those of the past he gave us true objects of modernity. To create them he used his skills and perceptions as a painter and a sculptor, for if we were to ignore his paintings, we cannot ignore his three-dimensional works, especially from his cubist period.

I unfortunately do not have a photograph of the Dove (1953) on show in this exhibit (white earthenware, painted with slip). He took a still malleable clay bottle and with deft and gentle hands moulded it into this wondrous bird, with its soft curves that evoke surprising life in a lifeless object. Picasso, of course, is known for creating the symbol of peace that was adopted by the Congrès pour la Paix in 1949, based on one of his compositions from around 1948. The first ceramic doves were also made at the Madoura pottery in 1949, the year his daughter Paloma (Spanish for dove) was born.

Picasso began to experiment with ceramics while still a teenager. One of his friends in Paris, where he moved in 1904, was the Basque ceramist Paco Durrio. Through him he met French painter and ceramist Paul Gaugin. Both influenced him and he began to work in the medium in a serious vein in 1906. But, after the 1920s he appears to have concentrated mostly on painting and sculpture although he did not completely abandon ceramics. In 1929 he is known to have worked closely with ceramist Jean van Dongen.

In 1946 he returned to Vallauris, which he had first visited 10 years earlier. It was known as a traditional centre for pottery. During his second visit he met Suzanne Ramié of the Madoura pottery at an exhibition, Poteries, fleurs et parfums. Ramié and her husband, Georges, and all of the other artists at the pottery made the workshop's facilities available to the famous artist. He very quickly acquired real knowledge of ceramic techniques.

We are the beneficiaries of Suzanne and Georges Ramié's generosity of spirit. The resulting artworks are splendid, indeed. Few have been shown publicly, especially not in one place. Now the curators of the current exhibit managed to assemble a remarkable collection of 80 pieces from around the globe. More than half belong to members of the Picasso family, and private collectors.

What makes this show interesting is not just that we can see Picasso's ceramics, but the manner in which they have been displayed, often juxtaposed with examples from earlier eras. This approach gives the viewer a sense of continuity, but also shows that the modern perception is not really that distant from the past.

The exhibition includes the only surviving clay work from Picasso's days in Barcelona, before he embarked on his journeys to Paris. It is a small terra cotta figure of a seated woman. The figure shows that the painter always had a fondness for clay.

The artist's sense of humor is evident in a number of objects. His creation of a Woman Riding a Horse from around 1950, or an oval shaped Owl created somewhere in the 1940s, are two examples. Jules Agard, the thrower at the Madoura workshop recalled how the owl came into being: "Since the master was very much interested in pottery, he asked me to make a few models, which he drew. The first piece was an owl. I hand-threw the body and the base of the bird, and together we assembled the parts. The master added the parts in relief."

The variety of objects in the exhibition, icasso and Ceramics, is amazing to view. There are vases, bowls, platters, and some sculptures, posters, and drawings, all of them displayed in a manner that brings Picasso's appreciation of ceramics very much to the fore. The show also gives us a sense of the man's playful nature, his serious side, and most of all, his creative impulse that went far beyond that of many of his contemporaries, and for a far longer time.

[ Picasso and Ceramics is on show at the University of Toronto Art Centre
until January 23, 2005.]

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