Tracking Leicester's Picasso Ceramics: September 29 2018

Today, a beautiful warm mellow autumn day, I set off to visit the Attenborough collection of Picasso ceramics at Leicester New Walk Museum.

David Attenborough and his wife, Sheila, started collecting the ceramics in 1954 and added to their collection over the years. In 2007, they gave a lifetime loan of 76 pieces to Leicester Arts and Museums Service and in 2018, this became a permanent gift to the City.

Picasso became interested in ceramics in the last twenty-five years of his life and, as prolific as ever, turned out something like 600 pieces a year. Picasso remained in Paris thoughout the occupation and the end of the war seemed to bring new hope and a new burst of creativity. Picasso moved to Antibes in the south of France where he embarked on ... "artistic experiments in ... ceramics, linogravure and cut-metal sculpture."

It was a nice little trip and I walked home across the park and down Queen's Road, where I picked up some kippers for tomorrow's breakfast. I remembered to have my little day-to-day notebook with me for scribbling down ideas. I thought the textural surface of the vase lent itself to a knitting or crochet experiment.

Shopping, Walking