An Exceptional Selection of Ceramics by Picasso at the Musée Magnelli
Suzanne Ramié, the head of the Madoura studio, participated in all the important regional events focusing on ceramics, and, in particular, from 1946 onwards, in the one held in Vallauris. She moved against the current of her times, and the studio emanated a creative effervescence that Picasso, always on the lookout, soon detected. The choice of Madoura for his ceramic work (close to 3,500 original pieces and 600 editions between 1947 and 1971) was the result of his having met this exceptional woman, whose singularity he identified from the start.
Suzanne Ramié taught Picasso the traditional techniques she used to fire and glaze clay. Picasso, who wanted to "do everything with everything," as usual in him, also seized the opportunity to appropriate whatever he came across in the studio, from scraps and discarded pieces to test runs and chipped bricks. Two different processes were used at the Madoura studio for producing Picasso's ceramic editions: the first involved a limited production run using a plaster mold; the second consisted of producing authentic replicas of an original piece made by the artist.
Picasso's presence in Vallauris made the studio famous from 1948 onward, while also putting its regular production on hold. As Dominique Sassi, a ceramist at Madoura who worked on Picasso's ceramic pieces for nearly twenty years, recalled: "Everything had to crack, bubble, and trickle in the firing. […] Everything was successful and marvelous […] Picasso allowed what was forbidden." Yet Suzanne Ramié never abandoned her own work. To avoid competing with the master, she only used monochrome glazes, which varied in the course of different periods in her production: white, bright yellow, deep blue, and orange. Picasso and Suzanne Ramié held a dialogue through their pieces: Suzanne's monochrome vases reappeared as colored, "sexed" works executed by Picasso's hand.
On October 22, 2022, the Musée Magnelli opened the Suzanne and Georges Ramié Room, a space featuring sixteen unique ceramic pieces by Picasso placed on long-term loan and dedicated by the master to Suzanne Ramié. Edward Quinn's photographs taken at the Madoura studio complete the presentation of the works. Quinn, an Irish celebrity photographer living on the French Riviera, first met the artist in 1951 and continued to have a privileged relationship with him for twenty years, up until the artist's death. Their friendship led to several films and books.
The opening marks the beginning of the season that the town of Vallauris Golfe-Juan will devote to Picasso throughout the year 2023, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the artist's death.
March 20, 1954.
Deposited at the Magnelli Museum, Ceramics Museum, Vallauris.
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