A masterpiece of Fassianos. Photo from enjoy.eastday.com

Now 50 pieces of his works, including lithographs, stamps and bronze sculptures, are displayed in the Shanghai Library in a solo show "Vivid Myths."

Fassianos was born in Athens in 1935. During 1956 to 1960, he studied in the Superior School of Fine Arts in Athens, under professor Yannis Moralis.

Then he studied lithography in Paris from 1960 to 1963. In 1966, Fassianos held his first solo exhibition at the Facchetti Gallery in Paris.

He has held more than 70 solo shows in Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn, Zurich, Milan, New York, Beirut, Stockholm and London. Fassianos has taken part in famed artistic events, such as the Paris Salon Comparison, Venice Biennale and Sao Paulo Biennale.

Besides painting, Fassianos is also a theater set and costume designer; he was one of the stamp designers for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

But it seems only "art insiders" can really see something in these myth paintings.

Most visitors - although they say they had read Greek myths more or less - cannot understand what they are. They only find some symbols or figures, such as Apollo, a bit familiar.

"I see ancient symbols such as a pigeon, a scarf and wheat ears," says Liao Wenfeng, from the Mingyuan Art Center, "and 20th-century cubism. His lines are like those of ancient Greek bottle paintings. Picasso is also inspired by Greek bottle paintings in his line drawings."

Date: through November 15, 9am-4:30pm
Address: No. 1 Exhibition Hall, 1555 Huaihai Rd M.
Tel: 021-6281-4671