Born in 1935 in Athens, Greece, he trained in music but went on to study painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts of the National Technical University of Athens – NTUA (1956-1960) where Yiannis Moralis was his principal instructor. In 1960 he received a scholarship from the French government to study lithography at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under A. Clairin and G. Dayez. After a brief phase in which he was influenced by abstract art (1957-1958), Fassianos quickly adopted a very personal style, which would serve him faithfully in his figurative painting. Already in 1960 he had cultivated his own anthropocentric style which over the years gradually evolved into a veritable visual treatise on everyday life. Fassianos’ painting has become a symbol of the Greek nation and a reflection of postwar society.
He has participated in more than 80 solo shows and has exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, notably in Athens, Paris, London, Geneva and throughout Europe, as well as in Dubai, Russia, Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo and Melbourne.
In addition to private collections, his art works can be found in museums in France: Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; the «MAEGHT» Foundation, Saint-Paul-de- Vence, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
The French Government honored him with its most prestigious award in 2013: The Order of the Legion of Honor. He was awarded by the Academy of Athens in 1999 and by the Russian Government in 2015 for his contribution to the Arts.
“It’s fantastic and semiological that the greatest painter of our time [Alekos Fassianos] was born in Greece …” Philippe Caloni, Combat newspaper, December 1970
“He whose name I write, the name I learned to pronounce: Fassianos, Oh, Fassianos! I remember those first days when the surprise hit me – it was a new way to love.”
Louis Aragon, “Fassianos Facing the Sky”
