1916 Born July 30th in Constantinople of Greek-Italian descent.
1922 The Prassinos family flees Turkey to settle in France,
in Nanterre near Paris. High school, Faculty of Humanities, School of Oriental Languages. In between the age of 18 and 23, Prassinos is
involved in the surrealist experience together with his sister Gisèle
Prassinos.
1927 Death of his mother, Victorine Prassinos.
1936 Death of his father, Lysandre Prassinos, who until 1922 was a French teacher in high schools in Constantinople as well as the editor in chief of the magazine Logos.
The family moves to Paris.
1938 Death of his grand-father, Charles-Prétextat Leconte, later
to become the subject of a series of paintings LES PRÉTEXTATS.
First solo exhibition at the galerie Billiet-Vorms in Paris with a foreword
by the poet René Char. Portraits of cats, warriors and women.
1939 Mario Prassinos volunteers for the war against the Nazis, he is severely wounded in coimbat.
1942 to 1950 He meets Raymond Queneau, Albert Camus. Joins the Éditions
Gallimard, does etchings to illustrate texts by Raymond Queneau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Guillaume Apollinaire,
Arthur Rimbaud, E.A. Poe…
1947 First scenography for stage director Jean Vilar at the T.N.P.
(National People's Theatre) and the first Theatre Festival d'Avignon.
1948 First exhibition at the Galerie Billiet-Caputo in Paris, later to
become the Galerie de France.
1949 Series of paintings TROUPEAUX (Herds). Acquires French nationality.
1951 Purchase of a house in the village of Eygalières in Provence. Beginning
of the ALPILLES series of ink drawings, named after the hills facing his house.
1951-1975 Production of more than 180 tapestry cartoons woven
in Aubusson (Creuse), les Gobelins (Paris) and Beauvais Manufactures and exhibited at
the Galerie La Demeure in Paris from 1956 to 1974.
1953 Wood engravings and copper etchings for The Raven by Edgar
Allan Poe.
1953 to 1976 Frequent exhibitions at the Galerie de France in
Paris.
1957 to 1960 BOUQUETS and LES CYPRÈS (the Cypresses)
series (oil on canvas).
1958 Extended stay in Greece in the island of Spetses during which he initiates the series les CYPRÈS DE SPETSAI, Indian
ink and oil painting on paper:.
1959 The ARBRES (the Trees) series, among which the large oil on canvas Meltem, later to be included in the artist's donation to the French state: the Donation Mario Prassinos. The PAYSAGES
(Landscapes) series.
1960 Set and costumes for Augst Strindberg's Erik XIV, then, in 1963 for Giuseppe Verdi's Macbetto staged at the Scala di Milano.
1962 à 1975 Portrait work:
1962
to 1964, portraits of blues singer BESSIE SMITH
1963
to 1970, portraits of his grand-father PRÉTEXTAT
1969
to 1975, portraits of his father: PÈRETEXTAT
1974
to 1975, les SUAIRES (the Shrouds).
1969 Scenography for the ballet Eonta on a music by Iannis Xenakis.
1970 to 1980 Work on the PAYSAGES TURCS (Turkish Landscapes)
series.
1973 Publication of his first book, Les Prétextats,
published by Gallimard, Paris.
1976 Extended stay at Mycenae in Greece where he starts writing
his second book La Colline Tatouée (The Tattooed Hill). The book
is published by Grasset in Paris in 1983.
1977 Set and costumes for Cripure by Louis Guilloux, staged by
Marcel Maréchal in Marseille and Paris.
1979 Important exhibition at the French Institute in Athens, in Rhodos and Tessaloniki.
1980 Exhibition of the series PAYSAGES TURCS in the national galeries of the Grand Palais
in Paris.
1980 to1984 Several hundred oil paintings on paper developing
the theme of the tree (LES ARBRES).
1981 Set and costumes for Giuseppe Verdi's Otello, staged at the opera
houses of Marseille and Avignon.
1983 Retrospective exhibition in Aix en Provence.
1984 Exhibition at the French Institute in Athens, in Rhodes
and Thessalonica (Greece).
1985 Mario Prassinos paints the 11 PEINTURES DU SUPPLICE (paintings
of the suffering) for the walls of a roman chapel in Saint Rémy
de Provence. These paintings are part of a comprehensive selection of his work, the Donation Mario Prassinos, donated by the artist to the French State : more than a hundred paintings,
drawings, engravings, tapestries and prints. This collection, which
is a property of the French National Contemporary Art Fund.
