Picasso sometimes used pottery as canvas

In a new exhibit at Keny Galleries, viewers will encounter an assortment of pitchers, plates and other containers.

Although it is not uncommon to find such objects in a gallery, these vessels are far from ordinary. Each is distinguished by the inimitable mark of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

The German Village gallery’s exhibit — one of the new year’s most significant — presents a selection of the brilliant ceramics that were the fruits of Picasso’s collaboration with Madoura Pottery in Vallauris, France (where the Spanish artist resided from the late 1940s to the mid-’50s).

Judging by the pieces on display, Picasso was intrigued by the possibilities offered by ceramics.

Faces are seen on the “Service Visage Noir, D” by Pablo Picasso

contours of many vessels. On the hourglass-shaped pitcher “Visage avec des Cercles,” thick green streaks stand in for eyes and a nose; another pitcher, the more evenly proportioned “Chope Visage,” renders a female face in delicate blue lines, including

dabs to evoke a Cupid’s bow on the lips.

Plates seem to have been substitute canvases for Picasso. In “Picador,” a horseback-riding figure tangos with a bull; in “Service Visage Noir, D,” a female face is outlined in

white against a black background — two patches of red suggest blushing or the presence of rouge.

An exhibit of Picasso’s ceramics would be eyepopping on its own, but the gallery supplements it with a striking secondary exhibit, “Modern Master Prints.” Artists of Picasso’s epoch — including Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Fernand Leger (1881-1955) and Joan Miro (1893-1983) — are also featured.

Calder’s lithograph “Les Fleurs” is a masterpiece in primary colors, featuring a branch bearing leaves in red, yellow and blue. The work is free-associational, too: Some leaves resemble the shape of the fleur-de-lis, so a fleurde-lis is depicted on the right side of the picture; other leaves are heart-shaped, so a heart is seen near the top.

Miro’s kinetic etching “Danseuse Creole” depicts a red stick figure with a yellow, egglike object in the center of its head; swirling black lines drawn atop the figure indicate a dancer’s movement.

More serene is Leger’s lithograph “Les Deux Visages,” which offers a side-by-side portrait of two women — one facing the viewer, the other in profile, and both wearing wry, knowing expressions.

Such works encapsulate the spirit of Picasso and the other artists included here: ebullient, inventive and forever fascinating.