artist/ PRASSINOS

FRANCE

Mario Prassinos was born in Constantinople in 1916. In 1922, the family moved to France, first to Nanterre and then to Paris.

From an early age, Mario Prassinos was immersed in the Surrealist milieu. There, he met avant-garde writers and painters: André Breton, René Char, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Marchel Duchamp.

After a brief stint in Clément Sevreau’s studio, he painted his first Surrealist canvases. He broke away from this movement to follow the path of abstract painting for a time (1947-1949), under the influence of Alberto Magnelli.

1951 marked a turning point for Prassinos. He moved to Eygalières, seduced by the location. Here, for the next thirty-four years, he would engage in a daily dialogue with the superb landscapes of the Alpilles.

It was also during this period that the major series of his work took shape: “les Alpilles”, “les Paysages grecs”, “les Arbres”, “les Bouquets”, “les séries de portraits”, “les Suaires”.

Prassinos’ entire body of work is underpinned by his distinctive style, which favors the systematic use of black and white.

A multi-faceted artist: writer (“la colline tatouée” Grasset 1983), tapestry cartonnier (over 150 cartoons created for Aubusson from 1951 to 1975), illustrator (36 etchings for Jean Paul Sartre’s “le mur”), engraver for the famous NRF collection, costume designer for the theater, Mario Prassinos’ singular work eludes any attempt at classification, making him one of the major artists of the post-war period.

Mario Prassinos’ works have been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions and are included in public collections: Museums: National d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris / Arles, Limoges, Grenoble, Marseille, Sète, Vienne, Bruxelles, London, Athens, The Hague, Lausanne, Chicago, New York ….