Pablo Picasso (Spanish/French, 1881-1973). "EXPOSITION / DU 24 JUILLET AU 29 AOUT / POTERIES / FLEURS / PARFUMS / VALLAURIS / .A.M." Edition of 300. Printed by Mourlot in Paris in 1948. Lithograph in colors on Arches paper. Signed in blue crayon on lower right. A hand-signed original Picasso Vallauris Exposition poster featuring a satyr's head boldly delineated in orange and black for an exhibition held on July 24 - August 29, 1948. Please note, this is an original poster entirely designed by Picasso AND it is one of three satyr head poster designs that were the FIRST ones Picasso made himself for Vallauris ceramics. Size: 23.5" L x 15.75" W (59.7 cm x 40 cm)

While visiting Vallauris' annual pottery exhibition in 1946, Picasso met Suzanne and Georges Ramie who owned the Madoura ceramics studio in town. Excited to explore a new medium, Picasso delved into ceramics and decided to move to Vallauris where he lived and worked from 1947 until 1955. Furthermore, as an expression of his connection to Vallauris, Picasso created "L'Homme au Mouton" statue for the town and creating the diptych "War & Peace" in the chapel of the Chateau de Vallauris.

From June 22 to October 22, 2018, seventy years after the poster in this lot was created, a landmark exhibition titled "Picasso, les annees Vallauris" (Picasso, The Vallauris Years) organised under the Picasso-Mediterranee project was shown in several heritage locales of Vallauris: Musee national Pablo Picasso: La Guerre et la Paix; Musee Magnelli: Ceramics museum; Madoura: Home of Art, History and Creativity; and the former Cinema l'Eden. According to the curatorial team, "Following the tragic years of war, the Vallauris sojourn was an era of family bliss for Picasso. Surrounded by his companion, Francoise Gilot, and their two children, Claude and Paloma, the artist attracted a circle of artists and writers, including Edouard Pignon, Jean Cocteau, Jacques Prevert and Paul Eluard. Fully engaged in the Vallauris community, Picasso injected new energy, inspired festive events such as bullfights and music parades, while pursuing his political activism in the Movement for Peace and the French Communist Party.

Looking at Picasso's works, his Vallauris years were marked by an extremely fertile artistic creativity that was kept alight by regular ceramic productions in the Madoura workshop. Picasso equally engaged in new technical and iconographic experiments by playing with this traditional craftsmanship to the point of reinventing its codes of practice. In the meantime, he ventured into sculpture, putting together recycled materials and repurposed everyday items, and also linocutting."

Provenance: private Waverly, Pennsylvania, USA collection

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#179356

Signed in blue crayon on lower right. Crevecoeur Du Marais watermark ("Maurais") visible at upper edge when held to light. Minute pinholes at corners; minute tears at upper right edge; slight discoloration (mat burn?) along right and lower left; a few crease marks as shown.