Daisies

George Costakis was born in 1912 in Moscow. A painter and collector of Russian avant-garde art, he assembled one of the most important collections in the world relating to the Russian avant-garde, which numbered more than 5,000 works. It included, among others, compositions by Kazimir Malevich, Vasili Kandinsky, Liubov Popova, Vladimir Tatlin, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Ivan Kliun, Solomon Nikritin, Olga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Mikhail Matiushin, Gustav Klutsis and many others of unique importance for the development of art in the early 20th century. In 1977 he decided to repatriate with his family to Greece, not being able to bear the constant "harassment" from the KGB. The Soviet authorities allowed him to export ¼ of his collection and donated the rest to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Kostakis also became involved in painting himself and in 1985 he exhibited paintings in Athens at the "The Third Eye" Gallery, mainly depicting imaginary landscapes inspired by the natural environment of Russia. He died in Athens in 1990. In March 2000, the Greek state purchased 1,275 works from Kostakis' collection, which became part of the collection of the then newly established Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art. After the establishment of the MOMus-Metropolitan Organization of Thessaloniki Fine Arts Museums, the collection belongs to the MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection.