The Notorious Nonconformist

George Costakis (1913-1990) is renowned as one of the great collectors and connoisseurs of Russian art. His collection was considered so notable that highlights were exhibited at such prestigious venues as the Guggenheim in New York.

Since these exhibitions concentrated on his Avant-Garde collection, a perception may have developed that this movement formed the entirety of the collection. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Between 1930 and 1946, Costakis had initially developed a collection of Old Master paintings before disposing of this to focus for the next decade on collecting the Avant-Garde. From 1956 onwards, however, he began to gather together works by contemporary artists who would later come to be known as `nonconformists'. Indeed, beginning in 1960, Costakis began to afford their work equal standing on the walls of his much fêted Moscow apartment which became a hub of the Moscow contemporary art scene.

For many young artists, a visit to Costakis' apartment was their first contact with the Russian Avant-Garde as this movement had been excluded from Soviet museums following Stalin's declaration of the doctrine of Socialist Realism in the early 1930s.

When Costakis left the Soviet Union for Greece in 1977, leaving a large part of his Avant-Garde collection to the Tretyakov, the nonconformist works travelled with him and remained in his family's collection. The works offered here have passed directly from George Costakis to his son Alexander Kostakis [the transliteration of the family name having changed in Greece] who exhibited them in his home as his father had done before him. They, in turn, have been inherited by his son.

1,250 nonconformist works from the Kostakis family collection were sold to the Greek government in 1997 and now form the core collection of the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki. The majority of the works offered in this sale joined them briefly for an exhibition entitled `Soviet Alternative Art, 1956-1988, from the Costakis collection' from June to September 2006.

The presentation of this group at auction provides an extremely rare chance to acquire works which were hand-picked by one of the great collectors of Russian art. It provides an opportunity to follow in the steps of George Costakis.