Vintage Alexander Kalifano Cubist Vase 1950s | Picasso Style Hand Painted

A truly striking piece of mid-century studio ceramics — a large hand-painted cubist vase by Alexander Kalifano, dating to the 1950s. The decoration is bold and immediately commanding: a fragmented cubist portrait of a female figure, painted directly onto the ceramic surface in the manner of Picasso's great cubist canvases of the same era. The face is rendered in profile and frontally simultaneously — the characteristic cubist duality — surrounded by a dynamic composition of geometric planes in teal, ochre, terracotta, black and cream. The crackled white ground adds an aged, painterly quality that feels entirely intentional, as if the surface itself has become part of the artwork. At 36 cm tall, this is a vase that commands a room. It is the kind of object that stops people in their tracks — not decorative in the conventional sense, but genuinely artistic, closer in spirit to a painting or sculpture than to a conventional piece of pottery. Condition is good with minor paint losses commensurate with age, as described and visible in photos. These surface imperfections do not diminish the visual impact of the piece. Height: 36 cm. Diameter: 23 cm.