Exhibitions: The exposition, dedicated to the centenary of the collector George Costakis, opened in Moscow

November 11, 2014 the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) solemnly hosts the exhibition “George Costakis. “Departure from the USSR…”. To the centenary of the collector”.

The exhibition is dedicated to the famous collector, the creator of one of the most significant in scale and quality private collection of the XX century George Dionisovich Costakis (1913-1990). His entrepreneurial instinct and natural artistic taste made it possible to find and preserve the unique works of Russian iconography, avant-garde and non-conformism. Costakis resumed interrupted traditions of the Great Russian of the XIX-XX centuries Pavel M. Tretyakov, Ivan A. Morozov, Ivan S. Ostroukhov, Sergei I. Shchukin, collections which largely influenced the culture of the time.

The main objectives of the exhibition are to show the audience the personality of G. D. Costakis and his collection, to tell about the phenomenon of collecting in our country. Costakis will appear before the audience as one of the legislators of the cultural space of Moscow of 1960-1970. His house was the place where young artists could meet the works of Russian avant-garde, nowhere exhibited before. Ambassadors, diplomats, directors of the largest foreign museums at different time tried to go there to see the legendary collection. To recreate the image of the famous apartment of Costakis in the exposition helps a specially organized space.

Special decision of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1977, the Costakis family was allowed to leave and the rest of the collection “as an exception to export from the USSR”. It was also guaranteed the right "in case of appropriate handling to allow G. D. Costakis and his family returned to the Soviet Union with the right to permanent residence”. Before leaving Costakis handed collection of icons in the Museum of Early Russian Art by Andrei Rublev. A unique collection of folk toys by N. M. Tsereteli who Costakis in due of the time acquired and thereby saved, he gave to the State; in 1990 the collection became part of the Museum-Reserve “Tsaritsyno”.

The State Tretyakov Gallery received the most significant and valuable part of the gift - a collection of avant-garde, numbering 142 paintings and 692 graphics, which presents more than forty names of Russian artists.

This exhibition includes more than 200 exhibits and reflects the wide range of interests of Costakis: iconography of the XV-XVIII centuries, masterpieces of Russian avant-garde, creative nonconformist artists, folk and author toy. The exhibition features scenic experiences of Costakis brush.

The sensation will be the show of the declassified in 2011 documents to transfer the collection to the state, reveling the complex process of making decisions about the fate of Costakis and his paintings.