 Selected works
Exhibition Checklist
Selected Documentary Photographs
George Costakis,
Mikhial Grechishnikov, Natalia Kolodzei, Aleksei Panin, Natalia
Shmelkova, Mikhail Shvartsman, Moscow 1986.
Ilya Kabakov,
George Costakis, Mikhail Shvartsman, Svetlana Zavadovskaya, Moscow 1986.
George Costakis,
Daria Costakis, Larisa Shkhvatchabia,
Natalia Kolodzei, Moscow 1986.
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- Moscow Government
- Moscow House of Nationalities
- Natalia Kostaki
- International Association of
Contemporary Russian Art Collectors
- Kolodzei Art Foundation, Inc.
- Regional organization Greek-Slavic
community Paradigm
- presents an exhibition in
conjunction with
- the humanitarian project Russians
Abroad
- George Costakis and His Time
- dedicated to the 90th anniversary
of the distinguished collector of Russian Art
George Costakis on Tuesday, July 15th at 6 PM at
Moscow House of Nationalities, Novaia Basmannaia
Street, 4, Moscow, Russia.
- George Costakis (1913-1990) is a
legendary figure in the history of Russian art
collecting. He was born on July 5th, 1913 in
Moscow and lived in Russia most of his life,
remaining a Greek citizen. He started his
collection as a continuation of pre-Revolutionary
traditions Russian icons and old paintings. Thus
he was not new to art collecting in 1946, the
year he stumbled across his first works of
avant-garde art by Olga Rozanova. Then he began
seeking treasures of the Russian avant-garde.
With the acquisition of his first avant-garde
paintings, Costakis found a focus and purpose for
his collecting: to bring out of obscurity the
achievements of a group of Russian experimental
painters who had been active during the period
from 1910 to 1930. George Costakis collection of
Russian art featured the works of leading
twentieth-century avant-garde artists such as
Liubov Popova, Gustav Klucis, Marc Chagall,
Kazimir Malevich, and Wassily Kandinsky. Later in
his life, Costakis collected and supported the
works of contemporary artists, such as Anatolii
Zverev, Dmitri Plavinsky, and Dmitri
Krasnopevtsev. When he left Russia in 1977, he
donated the best and the biggest part of his
collection of Russian avant-garde art to the
State Tretyakov Gallery, where today many of its
finest 20th century works are labeled
"Donated by George Costakis." During
much of Costakis' lifetime, the art of Rodchenko,
Malevich, Popova and many others was not
displayed in any official museum. They were kept
in storage facilities which were closed to the
public. These facilities were treated as if they
were secret military sites, like silos with
atomic weapons. One could not even say the word
abstraction out loud; it was a term employed only
by hostile ideology. The only places to view the
works was in private collections. The warm,
friendly atmosphere at Costakis par apartment
attracted many visitors, including Senator Edward
Kennedy and David Rockefeller, many artists,
poets, and musicians. It became one of few places
where it was possible to see works by Russian
avant-garde artists. This exhibition is dedicated
to Costakis and his times. At the exhibition
there are 50 documentary photographs and a
selections of 60 works by Anatolii Zverev,
Vladimir Yakovlev, Dmitri Krasnopevtsev, Vladimir
Nemukhin, Lydia Masterkova, Franscisco Infante,
Viacheslav Koleichuk, Ilya Kabakov, Valeri &
Alexander Volkov, Vladimir Weisberg, Vladimir
Yakovlev, Mikhail Shvartsman, Eduard Shteinberg,
and many others, from the daughter of George
Costakis, Natalia Kostaki and his son-in-law,
Vladimir Zazhirei, and from the Kolodzei
Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art
(Kolodzei Art Foundation, Inc.).
Selected review of the show in Kommersant
(in Russian)
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