The Frissiras 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.

……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.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.

Vlassis Frissiras, Founder of the Museum