Showcase of a genius that began with an ashtray...
Lord and Lady Attenborough’s collection of Picasso’s ceramic works to go on display at York Art Gallery
BERNARD LEACH, one of Britain’s leading potters in the 20th century, wasn’t much of a fan of Pablo Picasso. In fact he openly sneered at the Spanish artist’s foray into ceramics, so he may well not have approved of the arrival this week of 18 Picasso pots, destined to sit alongside his own collection at York Art Gallery.
Helen Walsh, curator of ceramics at the gallery, said: “Leach believed that to make something of worth, the clay had to be fashioned by the artist themselves. Picasso preferred a hands-off approach. He told his experienced team what he wanted and they did the rest.
“However, Leach was being more than a little hypocritical. In York we have one of his vases, decorated with leaping salmon. It might well be his masterpiece, but he didn’t make the pot. He only decorated it.”
While the two artists never resolved their differences, they will be brought together when Picasso: Ceramics from the
Attenborough Collection opens in York this week. The exhibition has been five years in the making and will take over the main space in the gallery’s Centre for Ceramic Art.
While best known for his paintings, Picasso began experimenting with clay in his 60s. By the time of his death in 1973 at the age of 91 he had produced more than 2,800 plates, jugs, jars and tiles.
Ms Walsh said: “Lord and Lady Attenborough first came across his ceramic work when they visited the Madoura pottery in the South of France, which had first sparked his inspiration. In 1954 they bought a simple ashtray, but it was the start of half a century of collecting.
“There’s a BBC documentary shot at their home on the outskirts of London and in the background you can see how just how much work they amassed. They may have started small – but they ended up big. And I mean big.”
When Lord Attenborough died in 2014 his will requested that half the ceramics collection, which by then totalled many hundreds of pieces, should go to Leicester’s New Walk Museum and Art Gallery and that the other half should be auctioned. When various items finally came up for sale, York Museums Trust was one of the first in the queue. Sadly, the piece it had hoped to buy went to a private collector, so this exhibition has even greater significance.
“What we will be seeing in York are all highly valuable limited editions, created under Picasso’s watchful eye, and by potters and decorators who he knew and trusted,” added Ms Walsh. “He was very particular about what could, and couldn’t be issued under his name. And ‘limited’ means just that. It means maybe just a dozen or so, each precisely numbered and catalogued.”
One of the is highlights of the exhibition, which opens on Friday and runs until November, is the Vase Azteque Aux Quatre Visages (The Vase With Four Faces). The work will be displayed alongside other items from the CoCA collection.
Ms Walsh said: “We hope visitors discover what an influence Picasso had on other potters in their ideas and designs, and how he, in turn took inspiration from Madoura. He was extremely skilled at playing with perspective, and that does come through brilliantly.
“What will excite people, I think, is his ideas, his concepts, his artistic integrity and, yes, his spark of sheer genius.”
They may have started small – but they ended up big. And I mean big. Helen Walsh, curator of ceramics at York Art Gallery, on Lord and Lady Attenborough.