Mario Prassinos (1916 - 1985) Turkey
Engraving
Measure 10"in H x 13"in W

Known for: Surrealist painting, sculpture, illustration
Biography: Mario Prassino was a Greek painter, illustrator, stage designer, tapestry designer and writer born in Istanbul (Constantinople) on 30 July 1916, the son of Victorine and Lysandre Prassinos. In 1922, at age six, he moved to France with his parents, who were exiled there, and in 1949, he became a French citizen. His early memories of France were troubling because of the poverty he observed, especially in the suburbs of Paris. His sister Gisèle Prassinos (born 1920) became a surrealist writer, whose work like Prassinos' reflected disturbing childhood memories. In 1932, he registered at the Sorbonne and briefly attended the studio of the French painter Clement Serveau. Through his father's literary interests he became acquainted with Surrealism, meeting Paul Eluard, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali and others. From 1932 to 1936 he worked in a Surrealist style, introducing procedures of automatism and formal ambiguities that he retained in his later work. From 1938 to 1947 he painted portraits of women and cats in an Expressionist style before experimenting briefly with Abstraction. His first exhibition took place in 1938 at the Galerie Pierre Vorms. That same year he married Yolande Borelly. His daughter Catherine Prassinos was born in 1946. In 1939, having enlisted as a soldier in the war, Prassinos was wounded, and, sent released from military service, bought a house in the south of France in the Cote d'Azur region at Eygalieres. Much of his painting was of subjects in those environs including the Alps. During the period 1942 to 1950 he met Raymond Queneau and Albert Camus and produced work for Editions Gallimard, a leading French publisher of books. He also worked in the studio of Chaim Soutine and there met Jean Lurcat (1892-1966), famous tapestry designer and maker. This association inspired Prassinos to focus on tapestry, and he spent time in Aubusson, known from the 13th Century for its tapestry production. He also did theatre set design illustrations. Mario Prassinos died on 23 October 1985.

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