Of all the stamps issued by the Hellenic Post to commemorate the Athens 2004 Olympic Games , those designed by artist Alekos Fassianos are arguably the most memorable. By blending modern, ancient, folkloric and classical styles, the stamps capture the Olympic Games’ timeless ideal of peaceful competition.

The series, entitled The Athletes, is actually the second collection of Olympic stamps bearing Fassianos’ signature. Issued on November 28th 2003, the collection is made up of six stamps (30 x 38 mm in size, with values ranging from 20 cents to 2,85 Euros) depicting athletes competing in classical field events as held during the ancient Olympic Games . Philatelists may be interested in purchasing the first-day-of-circulation commemorative envelopes, albums containing the series of six art pieces and prepaid postcards.

Fassianos makes his mark
Fassianos’ stamps differ from others in that his personal style, while inspired by ancient Greece, is neither archaic nor imitative of ancient art forms. The artist is a firm believer that art should never mimic the past. Instead, he seeks unique ways of combining the ancient and modern experience.

His new stamp collection depicts modern athletes participating in the ancient pentathlon events : discus, javelin, jumping (with the athlete holding stone or lead weights to increase his jump), running (both the standard foot race and the one in full military armour) and chariot racing. The artist’s bold use of colour adds a strikingly contemporary touch to the Olympic subject matter. Captured in stoic poses, with their hair billowing in the breeze, the athletes’ look loftily past the observer’s gaze, as if looking ahead to victory in 2004.

Fassianos’ earlier ‘Olympic’ work also bridges the dichotomy between past and present. In his first collection, a commemorative set of four stamps illustrating The Winners, Fassianos explores the ancient spirit of sport and victory and their modern understanding. Four modern-day athletes wear the kotinos, a wreath made of wild olive branches, which was the official prize given to all Olympic athletes participating in the ancient games. The kotinos was also portrayed on the Greek bid logo for the 2004 Olympics.

Miniature messengers
According to the artist, who studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts between 1956 and 1960 before moving to Paris to study lithography, the goal of the Athletes series is to promote the “diachronic nature of the Olympic Games,” via the depiction of modern-day athletes competing in classical sports.

“Today, when we walk the streets of our city,” Fassianos noted in a statement to the press, “we see various internal spaces called gyms, wherein people of all ages exercise with the use of various equipment. They don’t get tired because there is no natural effort, the machines work for them...That’s why the ancient Greeks built the stadium , an open space out in nature where bodies of athletes could move naturally, so as to exercise the entire body.”

It is true that upon entering one such stadium, one immediately feels the “desire to run or fly”. Whether defined as nostalgia for a time past or a physical connection to the open space, it is precisely this awe-inspiring feeling that Fassianos sought to capture in his paintings. It is also the feeling that he wants to communicate to the world in 2004 when his little stamps will act as the “messengers of the spirit of modern Greece.”