Pablo Picasso

PABLO PICASSO (Málaga, 1881 – Mougins, France, 1973).
"Hibou brillant," 1955.
Painted and glazed ceramic.
Edition of 450 copies.
Marked “Edition Picasso” and “Madoura Plein Feu” on the reverse.
Provenance: private collection, France.
Bibliography: Alain Ramié, Picasso. Catalogue of the Edited Ceramic Works 1947–1971, Galerie Madoura, Vallauris, 1988, no. 285.
In good condition, with slight signs of wear.
Measurements: 38.5 x 32 cm.

The owl, one of the most characteristic motifs in Picasso’s ceramic work, takes on a special power in this piece thanks to the integration of image and medium. The artist makes use of the rectangular format with rounded edges to construct the bird’s silhouette, whose body occupies practically the entire surface through horizontal bands, incisions, and strokes executed with great graphic economy. The frontal orientation of the enormous eyes and beak concentrates the expressiveness of the composition, while the black background enhances the contrast with the light engobes and the small blue and orange accents.

Ceramics became a true field of experimentation for Picasso following his arrival in Vallauris. He first visited the Madoura studio in 1946 and returned in 1947 to work alongside Suzanne and Georges Ramié, familiarizing himself with modeling, throwing, engobes, oxides, and glazes. Between 1947 and 1948, he produced nearly two thousand pieces at Madoura, a testament to the intensity with which he approached this new medium.

Vallauris also marked a renewal of his sculptural language. Picasso soon realized that plates, jugs, and bowls could cease to be mere decorative surfaces and, by virtue of their very form, become part of the image: the volume of a vessel could be transformed into a body, and the outline of a plate could define the anatomy of a face or an animal.

In *Hibou brillant*, the black glazed finish intensifies the graphic hallmarks of the decoration, while the shape of the plate becomes incorporated into the animal’s anatomy. The piece exemplifies particularly well the freedom with which Picasso approached ceramics, treating it as a medium through which to reformulate his repertoire of figures, faces, and animals.

Pablo Picasso was one of the key figures in 20th-century art and, alongside Georges Braque, a leading figure in the development of Cubism. His work spanned painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and ceramics—media he approached through continuous formal and technical experimentation. From the late 1940s onward, Vallauris and the Madoura studio played a prominent role in his career. His work is represented in major international collections; the Museu Picasso in Barcelona holds, among other holdings, a significant collection of ceramics.