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Mario Prassinos

"My heart paints the profile of the hills."

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Notes of biography

Mario Prassinos (portrait by Edward Quinn in 1960) was 33 when he was naturalized French in 1949. He was born in Istanbul to Greek parents who were exiled to France when he was only 6 years old. His first years in France left him with a disagreeable memory of the world of the suburbs, of difficult material conditions. He was already painting when his younger sister Gisele, introduced him to a group of surrealists who took notice of this young poet. He comes into contact with Breton, Eluard, Aragon, René Char and Max Jacob who he will mix with regularly. It is during this period that he starts to engrave.
After voluntarily enlisting in the war he is wounded in 1939. He lives in Paris but buys a house in Eygalieres in the Bouche-du-Rhone where he will work more often. He will tirelessly cover les Baux and the Alpilles that inspire his work.
In Paris, he is now sets up in Soutine’s studio, Prassinos meets Jean Lurcat; it is this meeting that will lead him to start tapestry and he will take the route to Aubusson - (The town of Aubusson, 200 miles from Paris, has been known since the 13th century for its tapestries) -. With very elegant traits, he will express in his art a taste for movement through his 150 works.
Mario Prassinos also conveys his talent by illustrating numerous works of theatre set design. From the 50’s, he will attached himself to the retranscription of his own feelings - light, heat or wind - in an art that essentially becomes graphic, elegant and refined.
In 1985, the year of his death, he makes a gift to the state a collection of the synethsis of the all of his work.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Peintures récentes de Prassinos », P. Restany, In « XXè siècle », Paris, 1957
  • « Prassinos », J.L. Ferrier, Musée de Poche, Paris, 1962
  • « Mario Prassinos, Les Prétextats », Ed. Gallimard, Paris, 1973
  • « Prassinos », catalogue d'exposition du Musée d'Ixelles, 1988
  • « M. Prassinos - de l'île Spétai aux Alpilles », Espace 13, Aix-en-Provence, 1996
  • « Prassinos », J.-L. Ferrier, G. Prassinos et M. Prassinos, Présence contemporaine, 1983
  • « Correspondance », Henri Parisot, Ed. Joëlle Losfeld, 2003
  • « Mario Prassinos », Ed. Actes Sud, 2003
  • « Mario Prassinos, peinture et dessin », Catherine Prassinos, T. Rye, Ed. Actes Sud, 2005
  • « Prassinos, calligraphe de l'au-delà », M. Alyn, Ed.Bartillat, 2007
To read from the artist :
  • « La colline tatouée », Ed Grasset, Paris, 1983
  • « Prassinos », J.-L. Ferrier, G. Prassinos et M. Prassinos, Présence contemporaine, 1983
Website :
www.marioprassinos.com

More :


Art movements

+ SURREALISM / 1924-1969 / Marcel Duchamp, Dora Maar, Kurt Schwitters, Taro Okamoto, Antonio Berni, etc.
+ SCHOOL OF PARIS / 1945-1960 / Jean Degottex, Georges Mathieu, Nicolas de Staël, etc.
+ NEW REALITIES / 1946-1956 / Etienne Béothy, Marcelle Cahn, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover