Mario Prassinos
Mario Prassinos ( born August 12, 1916 in Constantine Opel, Ottoman Empire; † 23 October 1985 in Paris, France) was a French painter Greco- Italian descent. He is one of the most important representatives of Abstract painting after the Second World War.
Life
Mario Prassinos was born to a Greek family in 1916, on August 12, according to the Gregorian calendar, or on July 30 after Greek Orthodox calendar. His family lived for many generations in Constantinople Opel. In 1922, many Greeks left Turkey to escape impending persecutions; his family emigrated to France.
Mario Prassinos attended school in Puteaux, later in Nanterre until 1936, after which the school Condorcet. Mario Prassinos often went to the theater workshop of Charles Dullin, which made him familiar with the world of theater. 1934, his sister Gisèle Prassinos (* 1920), their first releases own texts in the magazine " Minotaur ". During this time he learned about his sister the artist Man Ray, the Surrealist poet André Breton, Paul Éluard, René Char, and Benjamin Péret and the painter Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, and Marcel Duchamp know.
Mario Prassinos created some drawings and covers for the publisher Guy Lévis - Mano. Starting in 1936, he distanced himself from the artistic surrealism. In 1938 he had his first solo exhibition at the "Galerie Billiet " in Paris, opened by René Char.
As a volunteer combatants he was injured in World War II and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1942 he collaborated with Raymond Queneau. Between 1943 and 1945 he met Albert Camus and Jean -Paul Sartre, from which he ( The Wall) illustrated Le Mur, and Jean Lescure and Gaston Bachelard. In 1947 he designed his first decorations and costumes for a play by Paul Claudel, directed by Jean Vilar at the first Festival of Avignon. He began a collaboration with the painter Alberto Magnelli and met Myriam Prevot, the future leader of the " Galerie de France ", where he exhibited later. In 1949 he received French citizenship.
His Series Troupeaux from this period shows his abstract painting style. In 1951 he designed his first wallpaper and tapestries. 1958, after a cruise with Albert Camus and Michel Gallimard, he had to experiment a longer stay on the island of Spetses in Greece, where he began with the pointillism. Max - Pol Fouchet honored him with a TV movie. In 1959, Mario Prassinos participated in documenta 2 (1977 and documenta 6 ) in Kassel.
From 1959 to 1964 Prassinos continuously designed decors and costumes for Jean Vilar. In his painting new topics came up: portraits of Bessie Smith or his grandfather Pretextat (1965-1968), Suaires on the Holy Shroud of Turin (1974-1975), Paysage Turcs (1972-1981) ( exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris 1980) and Arbres ( 1980-1985 ). Lucien Clergue in 1969 turned a film about his work with a text by Jean Lescure.
His last work, the eleven paintings of torment for the church of Notre -Dame de Pitié in Saint- Remy- de -Provence. Mario Prassinos died at his home in eygalières on 23 October 1985.