GILBERT PORTANIER (1926-2023) - Lot 110

GILBERT PORTANIER (1926-2023) Olympian Games frieze, circa 1955 Bottle vase; the body is recessed in the center, the base of the neck is ribbed, the neck has two very small detached handles. Glazed ceramic proof; the title frieze engraved under covers. Signed with the monogram under the base. Height: 38cm A very slight chip around the neck. Provenance: Swiss private collection: - Swiss private collection. - Ceramic Addict - Piasa sale, December 12, 2023 (nº 108). The subtlety of his chromatic palette and the brilliance of his aesthetic have earned Gilbert Portanier the nickname "Magician of colors". Born in Cannes and trained in architecture and painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he was seduced by the fervent cultural environment of Vallauris, where he settled in 1948. There, he founded the Le Triptyque ceramics studio in collaboration with Francine Del Pierre (1913-1968) and Albert Diato (1927-1985). Their first production was strongly inspired by the classical forms of Far Eastern ceramics, which Portanier enriched with the purity of his pictorial and graphic spirit. In fact, he developed a body of work marked by elegant, increasingly simplified, even abstract decorations, with strokes that varied in sharpness, thickness and continuity. To this graphic rigor, he contrasted a sensitive, nuanced brushwork, resulting in a highly decorative effect, enhanced by engraved or drawn friezes. These ornaments take the form of narrative frames, recalling the pottery tradition of ancient Greece, from which he also drew inspiration for shapes and volumes. In the 1960s, his highly acclaimed work moved closer to sculpture, in which he translated his aesthetic: figures in relief, incised drawing and modelled clay. Over the following decades, and right up until his death, Gilbert Portanier's work evolved, gradually freeing itself from formal constraints.