Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more

Property from an Important Collection George Costakis (1903-1990) was renowned even in his lifetime 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 with regular parties and exhibitions [evidenced here by the photograph of Dmitri Krasnopevtsev's show including lot 74 hanging to the left of the collector's shoulder]. 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. These encounters created a dialogue between the two schools, a dialogue which artists such as Francisco Infante [lots 72 and 73] saw as fundamental to their artistic development. Far from therefore being primarily concerned with documenting and saving the past achievements of Russian art, Costakis was a significant catalyst for the Moscow contemporary art scene in the 1960s and 1970s. When Costakis left the Soviet Union for Greece in 1977, leaving a large part of his Avant-Garde collection to the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, the nonconformist works travelled with him and remained in his family's collection. The works offered here have passed directly from George Costakis to the vendor by descent. 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 collections' 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.

Oscar Rabin (b. 1928)

Untitled

Details

Oscar Rabin (b. 1928)
Untitled
signed in Cyrillic and dated 'Rabin 61' (lower right)
oil on canvas
43¼ x 35 3/8 in. (110 x 90 cm.)
Painted in 1961

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist by George Costakis (1913-1990), and thence by descent.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Soviet Alternative Art (1956-1988) from the Costakis collections, Thessaloniki, 2006. illustrated p. 145, no. 1.

Exhibited

Thessaloniki, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Soviet Alternative Art (1956-1988) from the Costakis collections, June-September 2006.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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