Russian Avant-Garde


The “Russian Avant-Garde. A selection from the Costakis Collection” was a well-documented exhibition of international importance in the history of art. It was inaugurated on Monday, 26 November 2001 at the Rethymno Centre for Contemporary Art (today's Contemporary Art Museum of Crete) in cooperation with the State Museum of Contemporary Art.

The exhibition was brought to life thanks to the generous support of the Minister of Culture to the Rethymno Centre for Contemporary Art, the Board of Directors of the State Museum of Contemporary Art and its Director, Mr. Miltos Papanikolaou, so that the Cretan public could get to know the works that were to influence the entire later artistic development and movements of the 20th century.

The Russian Avant-Garde flourished exactly at the point in time when the earliest formof art became one with the earliestform of action that society took. In the setting that paved the way for the utopia of the Russian Revolution, the artists who were rebelling in traditional art jointly created the vision that a few years later will be drowned in the Conservatism. The art that emerged from the trenches during war and the dream of a different future was not glorified in its homeland when the revolution became an official regime.The artists who had returned to their country from the European art centres of the early 20th century to trigger the October Revolution with their art were not to compose the “Symphony of Factory Sirens” that the poet dreamed of. Mayakovsky killed himself, and Kandisky and Gapo self-exiled because of their forbidden art and thought of their own at the rise of a rhetorical Socialist Realism. The works of the Russian Avant-Garde were inextricably linked to Greece thanks to the person who collected them piece by piece dedicating his life to them.

The Greek artist George Costakis acquired his first work created by Rozanova in 1946. A decade later he possessed a huge collection, the majority of which is now in the Tretyakov Gallery.

The first major exhibitions that placed the Costakis Collection on the international stage were held in Europe (Düsseldorf, 1977) and in New York (1981), and coincided with several events. The first one coincides with the collector's relocation to Greece and the second one with his intentions to make a generous offer to the then unprepared Greek State.

The collector died in 1990. The Ministry of Culture honoured his memory in 1995 by organising a major exhibition of the Costakis Collection held by the National Gallery and curated by the art historian Anna Kafetsi. Three years later, the Greek dream of the art community was coming to life when the boxes containing the precious material arrived at Moni Lazariston in the newly established State Museum of Contemporary Art. They were exhibited in 2000 with the affection and care of the director of the Museum, Professor Miltiadis Papanikolaou.

The works of the collection are on display in Greece due to the decision of the Minister of Culture, Professor Evangelos Venizelos, to purchase them from the heirs of George Costakis.

The Rethymno Centre for Contemporary Art, a prominent organisation in Crete promoting dialogue and discussions on the issues of contemporary art, which it represents, is grateful for this exhibition whose material marks the beginning of these movements: The exhibition “Russian Avant-Garde. A selection from the Costakis Collection” in its first domestic tour provided an opportunity for the people of Crete and visitors to get to know this form of art and to reflect on the causes that inspired it.

The Rethymno Centre for Contemporary Art has arranged for the exhibition to be open throughout the Gallery's opening hours, in order to give all Cretans the opportunity to become familiar with this fundamental aspect of art history.

Due to particular security and protection conditions, the exhibition was open until 13 January 2002 and was not extended.

The exhibition was complemented by a bilingual catalogue.

During the exhibition, an educational programme for pupils of the fourth, fifth and sixth grades of primary school and a seminar for teachers of primary and secondary education on “The negotiation of space through the works of the Russian Avant-Garde” taught by Maria Choulaki were held.