Mario Prassinos (GREEK/FRENCH, 1916-1985) Le nuage (Peint en 1958.signed and dated (lower left); titled and dated (on the reverse)oil on canvas)

Mario Prassinos (GREEK/FRENCH, 1916-1985)
Le nuage signé et daté 'Prassinos 58' (en bas à gauche); titré et daté 'LE NUAGE PARIS/JAN/58' (au revers)huile sur toile130 x 97cm (51 3/16 x 38 3/16in).Peint en 1958.signed and dated (lower left); titled and dated (on the reverse)oil on canvas

ExpositionErmoupolis, Syros island, Cyclades Art Gallery - Municipal Cultural Centre, Mario Prassinos Retrospective Exhibition 1935-1985, Ermopouleia 2008, August 2 - September 3, 2008 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p. 81).LittératureA. Xydis, "Contemporary Art and Greek Art," lecture given at the Benaki Museum, AICA, February 2 - March 23, 1961 (included in the slide presentation).Zygos magazine, no. 66-67, May-June 1961, p. 35 (illustrated).An archetypal piece from a rather limited and ardently sought after body of the artist's work from the late 1950s, Le nuage stands at par with the finest examples of American and European postwar abstraction. Explosive biomorphic shapes and robust forms of linear virtuosity create a pulsating field of precious matter that draws its strength from the infallible workings of nature. Dismantled and recomposed, the landscape seeks its true essence in the secret pathways of the artist's inner self. Displaying a rare combination of control and freedom, and resonating with the mystery of an ancient world, Le nuage shows Prassinos at his mature best."One of the most authentic and full-blooded artists of his generation," as the writer Raymond Queneau once said of him,1 Marios Prassinos moved to the south of France in 1951, in a region which proved to be a major source of inspiration and the core of his work. Trees, clouds, and grazing herds became projections of his visionary world, a luminous realm of Mediterranean miracles and mysteries. As the great Albert Camus once said: "For Prassinos, the Mediterranean is more powerful than the static ideas of the North. He speaks, as he must, the language of his era. But he also speaks the language of another time and place across the centuries."2 1 R. Queneau Introducing the Prassinos 1965 show at the Nouveau Musée des Beaux-Arts in Havre.2 A. Camus prefacing the artist's 1951 exhibition catalogue, Kunsthandel Santee Landweer, Amsterdam.