André pourtales was born March 3rd 1935 in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, both his father and mother were from the Cévennes. During his childhood, he had to endure the prangs of war together with all its images of devastation. Nevertheless, it was in this peculiar context that his taste for painting developped.
But it was only when he went back to his homeland , to the land of his ancestors, that the passion which had been lying dormant deep inside him for so long a time awakened.
Spontaneously, humbly, his painting will spread with talent to display very quickly a deserved reputation.
In 1981, an art critic said about him :this painter moves with a remarkable ease , and his palette - knife works wonders. He procees with touches, and gives shapes and value to his inspiration. This implies a faultless knowledge of his palette.
A technique , a thorough craft , the effect which is sought after is worked at closely , but can be seen only from the distance .
Pourtales is a true personality, a sensual, animal strength which vibrates on the canvas with fervour. His painting is alive, merry, talkative, expressing, tough and sensitive at the same time.
A male painting, always striking, never indifferent. A painter who will surprise us again ang again for it has weapons of Youth and both with deep roots which grow up from his land, and he is like Rimbaud, his head in the sky.
From that day, time went by and Pourtales have won several awards.
Officier art sciences et lettres
Chevalier belgo hispanique
Hors concours nouvelle école française 1981
Salon d’automne grand palais 1980 et 1981
Artistes français à Paris 1982
Grand prix des Cévennes 1980 et 1981
Grand prix à Arles en 1981 « nouvelle école française »
Médaille d’argent en Avignon 1980
and many prizes in some important exhibitions
in Cannes, Marseille, Lodève, Montpellier...
Now a days, looking back, André find the canvas closer to his dreams: “ I don’t paint what i see anymore, but what i feel” and he makes this quote his: a great painting can’t be only a image “ what is the most precious thing about painting creation, is coulour and texture. They both form the pictorial essence the subject has always killed.
Présentation