The Avant-Garde World: City, Nature, Universe, Human

If you are curious about how art tried to redesign everyday life, nature, and even the idea of the cosmos, this long running exhibition at the National Gallery is an excellent place to start. It brings together key works from the Costakis Collection through four linked themes, City, Nature, Universe, and Human, tracing how Russian avant garde artists moved from academic rules to bold experiments and utopian visions in the early twentieth century.

You do not need prior knowledge to enjoy it, but it helps to know why the Costakis name matters. George Costakis was a Greek collector who safeguarded a remarkable body of Russian avant garde art at a time when it was banned and at risk of being lost. Much of the collection is now held by MOMUS in Thessaloniki, and this exhibition offers a strong introduction in Athens, framed around how artists imagined people shaping the world around them.