FRISIRAS MUSEUM
“Creating a collection is a lifetime adventure”
– Vlasis Frisiras
“Creating a collection is a lifetime adventure”
In our time and age Art has a right to pure madness. Assuming a position of defense towards the prevailing artistic atmosphere, I made my personal aesthetic choices and embraced contemporary painting with an anthropocentric slant.
I showed particular affection for the new forms in the field of painting, without being indifferent to any other art form which seemed to me to be genuine and sincere. I have always believed that an Art which does not trigger the emotions is no Art. Over a course of forty years, I have put together a collection of paintings with an ideology, coherence and a specific aim.Yet, going into this process requires a little ‘perversion’ or transcendence; one has to move unconsciously away from reason. Along this course of the absurd, a Museum may well emerge… Yes, it was thus simply that the Frissiras Museum was created in Athens, through my own reserve of inner power and boldness. It was set up to preserve and protect the past, to showcase the present and to produce cultural work for the future. After all, this is what History has taught us, in the course of which Art would come across some ardent supporters who ensured the conditions for its creation and promotion. The Frissiras Museum houses my collection of over 3,500 works and has hosted other Greek and international exhibitions by established or younger artists in a fertile discourse, always within the context of artistic and cultural developments in Europe.
Vlassis Frissiras, Founder of the Museum
The Frissiras Museum, the only Museum for Contemporary European Painting in Greece, was inaugurated on November 27, 2000 by the President of the Republic Constantine Stefanopoulos and officially opened on December 4, 2000 by the Mayor of Athens Dimitris Avramopoulos. It was founded by the Vlassis Frissiras family, which is also responsible of the administration of the foundation, which consists a non-profit origination. The Frissiras Museum houses the private collection of its founder, Vlassis Frissiras. An attorney by profession but passionate about Art. He started collecting works by young Greek visual artists in 1978, with the resolute aim of putting together a collection made up exclusively of paintings centered on two axes: the human form and body, and representation, i.e. the figurative art that reinstates a method of painting which has been more or less marginalized by newer forms of art. In the 1990s, his interest turned to European artists.
The Frissiras Museum is housed in two neoclassical buildings in Plaka. The one is located at number 3, Monis Asteriou str, it is one of the first neoclassical houses of Athens. It was built in 1860 and restored to its original form by the Frissiras family in 1998-99. It still preserves some of the architectural elements of its period like the internal yard and the glazed Athenian windows. It consists of five floors and its atrium is covered by a glass roof designed by Alexandros Ν. Tombazis. The building at 7, Monis Asteriou str, was designed by the architect Ernst Ziller. It inaugurated in 1904. It is among the most important neoclassical examples in Athens, with Ionian-style elements. The Ministry of Culture lists it as a late historical monument. In 1999-2000, it was fully restored to its original form, by the Frissiras family.