VIMA Circle Talk with Zelfira Tregulova

At the beginning of the 20th century, artists took a radical step: they abandoned the existing language of art in order to invent a new one. This was the birth of the avant-garde — art directed toward the future. For a brief moment, this language was embraced by the revolutionary government in Russia and became the foundation for the first state collections of contemporary art — a rare moment in history when the most experimental artistic ideas received official support.

But this alliance did not last long. Cultural policy shifted dramatically, and the works of Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko, Lyubov Popova, Olga Rozanova and their contemporaries were pushed to the margins — facing the risk of disappearance.

At this critical moment, an unlikely figure entered the story: George Costakis. Without academic credentials, and holding a Nansen passport, he worked as a driver for the Canadian Embassy in Moscow. In the late 1950s he discovered the avant-garde works that had been scattered across attics and country houses of artists’ descendants. His passion and intuition transformed a private fascination into a life’s mission. Costakis’s collection eventually became the foundation for major museum holdings, including the State Tretyakov Gallery. A significant part of the collection is now held in Greece, in Thessaloniki.

This talk reflects on historical turning points, the fate of art, and how personal passion and initiative can reshape the cultural memory of an entire era.

Zelfira Tregulova is an art historian and curator of international exhibition projects. She served as Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery from 2015 to 2023. Throughout her career she has worked with the collections of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Dresden State Art Collections, the Vatican Museums, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Munch Museum in Oslo, and other leading institutions around the world.

Location:
11 Parthenon Street, Ayios Andreas, 1105 Nicosia, Cyprus

Google Maps:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qtDvXa2sSjZ1AZsn6?g_st=it

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