GILBERT PORTANIER
Solo Show
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October, 2025
PARIS
35 AVENUE MATIGNON
75008, FRANCE
Dumas+Limbach is pleased to present “Gilbert Portanier, Nuances en terre et en couleur”, a solo exhibition in our Parisian gallery. This exhibition will be an opportunity to discover some of the artist's major works.
Gilbert Portanier (1926 – 2023) was a French ceramist, painter, and sculptor.
An emblematic artist of Vallauris, he was nicknamed the “Magician of Colors” following an exhibition at the Sèvres Ceramics Museum.
After studying architecture, he turned as a self-taught artist to painting and drawing.
The summer of 1948 was a decisive moment in his career. In Vallauris, together with Albert Diato and Francine Del Pierre, he met Pablo Picasso. This encounter forever sealed his destiny with that of clay.
GILBERT PORTANIER
Vase, XXe
Glazed ceramic
45 x 48 cm
GILBERT PORTANIER
Vase, XXe
Glazed painted ceramic
30 x 44 x 12 cm
The following year, in 1949, the three companions opened a pottery workshop, Le Triptyque. Unable to part with Vallauris, Gilbert Portanier remained there while Albert and Francine returned to Paris.
The artist then acquired his own studio, which he would never leave.
His career gained momentum, and his creations grew increasingly complex. While most ceramists turned toward semi-industrial production, Portanier devoted himself to unique pieces.
The balance of color, form, and graphic design imparted strength and power to works that became ever more sculptural.
GILBERT PORTANIER
Bouteille, XXe
Glazed painted ceramic
28.5 x 15 cm
His reputation spread to Germany after the 1954 invitation from the director of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, where Portanier exhibited his works alongside Picasso and Fernand Léger. He went on to exhibit in Cologne in 1956, in Hagen in 1957, in Budapest in 1961, in New York and again in Cologne in 1963, and in Dortmund in 1964.
Portanier also exhibited in Russia, the United States, and France, where he was awarded a prize at the Vallauris Biennale, as well as in Italy. Today, his works are on display at the Musée de la Céramique in Vallauris and at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Over the course of his long and successful career, he received numerous prizes and distinctions.
GILBERT PORTANIER
Vase bouteille, 1978
Glazed painted ceramic
36.5 x 15 cm
GILBERT PORTANIER
Bouteille, XXe
Glazed painted ceramic
39 x 9 x 9 cm
GILBERT PORTANIER
Vase Bouteille, circa 1975
Glazed painted ceramic
30 cm
GILBERT PORTANIER
Bouteille, 1981
Glazed painted ceramic
29 x 9.5 cm
His relationship with ceramics is highly ambivalent, as the artist did not consider himself a ceramist. He preferred instead to present himself as a painter. His mastery of drawing and color leaves little room for doubt. In this sense, he remarked: “I am profoundly a painter (…) why should painting have to be on canvas or cardboard?”
For Portanier, ceramics offered a way to overcome the two-dimensionality of the canvas. On a ceramic piece, relief does not need to be invented, as it is already an object in three dimensions.
His language, navigating between figuration and abstraction, is suggestive.
His palette of colors is undeniably rich, allowing sensations and emotions to shine through.
GILBERT PORTANIER
Céramique vase, 1975
Glazed painted ceramic
44 x 20 cm
“I was far from knowing that I was committing my life in that summer of 1948, when, on the occasion of a visit to Picasso with my friends Albert Diato and Francine Delpierre, I decided to try my hand at clay for a summer in Vallauris.”
Quotation from Gibert Portanier
