"Like a Child:" Whimsical Original Picasso Ceramic Face Plate

Glazed earthenware plate by Picasso, polychrome colors depicting a face, France, c. 1963. Diameter: 9-3/4″. Leah Gordon Gallery

In 2010, Christie’s sold Pablo Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” for $106.5 million, making it the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. Needless to say, Picasso’s work fetches some of the highest prices in the art world. Can you imagine eating off one of them? Most people know Picasso as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, figure of 20th century painting but fewer know that he was also a brilliant sculptor, printmaker, stage designer–and ceramicist. In 1946, his quarter-century ceramic period began, and he produced some 3,500 pieces of vases, bowls, pitchers, and plates.

“Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, 66, paints a plate in a pottery workshop at Vallauris on the French Riviera in January 1948.” Source: npr.org

1963 was a banner year for his celebrated series of whimsical ceramic face plates. The 1963 visage plate above from Leah Gordon gallery is a particularly vibrant and enigmatic one. Despite the lopsided features and cheerful cheek spots depicted in bright, primary colors, there’s something menacing about the eyes. The purposeful vertical dark green line and furrowed black eyebrows further enhance the darker undertones of the visage. The longer you look at the piece, the more mysterious this child-like face seems. However, it should be no surprise that Picasso could fill this seemingly simple work with meaning. This is, after all, the man who famously said “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”