Pablo Picasso

From 1947 Picasso spent years at the Madoura pottery in Vallauris, run by Suzanne and Georges Ramié, and made thousands of pieces there. His approach was to treat a pot as a body: a jug becomes a woman by pinching in a waist, a vase sprouts a bird's head, a plate turns into a bullring or a face. The Ramiés' throwers, notably Jules Agard, made many of the forms he then reshaped and painted, and the workshop produced licensed editions of his designs. It is the most playful corner of his work.