Her marriage to him involved her in Mexico's cultural and intellectual scene and she began to develop her ability to paint on her own, with encouragement from her husband.
Her parents, violinist and composer Jacobo Kostakowsky and Ana Falvisant Bovglarevokeylandel, were from the Russian Empire, but left Ukraine to escape the persecution of Jews just before the First World War.
[1] When the war ended, the family had severe economic problems, prompting her father to become radicalized politically, influenced by figures such as Rosa Luxemburg.
However, before she left, she studied painting with Carlos Mérida and engraving with Emilio Amero, meeting her husband José Chávez Morado.
Costa herself voiced that she would continue to paint in a traditional way, like Diego Rivera and Jose Chavez Morado, and keep on making Nationalist content even if it angered the people dominating the art scene at the time.
[3] Her marriage introduced her to new artistic and intellectual circles in Mexico as Chávez Morado's career was on the rise and encouraged her to participate in the cultural scene of the country.
In 1941 she lived a short time in San Miguel Allende while Chávez Morado worked as a teacher at a local art school for foreigners.
In Mexico City in the 1940 and 1950s, their social life revolved around the Monument to the Revolution area or Tabacalera, then filled with refugees from the Spanish Civil War including Andrés Henestrosa, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Julio Prieto Posadas, María Izquierdo, Juan Soriano and Inés Amor.
Eleven years later the couple moved back to stay, where Costa continued to paint and do cultural promotion.
[3] Costa was one of a number of prominent female artists in 20th-century Mexico, along with María Izquierdo, Lola Cueto and Helen Escobedo although the field was dominated by men.
[1] Through her husband, Costa was active in Mexico's cultural and intellectual scenes, where she became friends with Galería de Arte Mexicano owner Inés Amor.
[1] Her major canvas works include Cabeza arcaica, La novia, Figuras en el trópico algo tiesas, Casa azul 3, Casa roja, Follajes azules, Pueblo minero de noche, Ladera and Niebla although her best known work is probably La vendedora de frutas from 1951.
In 1941, she opened the Galería La Espiral along with her husband, Angelina Beloff, Gabriel Fernández Ledesma, Germán Cueto, Francisco Zúñiga and Feliciano Peña, which Costa directed.
[1] In 1993, the couple donated their home, a former hacienda in the city of Guanajuato, to create the Casa de Arte Olga Costa-José Chávez Morado museum.
[5] The state government of Guanajuato created the Bienal de Pintura y Escultura Olga Costa in her honor, which is a competition only for women artists.
She did this in a "Costumbrismo" style, illustrating local daily life and customs with bright colors allocated to the Mexican traditional painting.
The term "deflower" is used to refer to the woman’s loss of virginity and presumed maturity by way of metaphorical wilted flowers standing behind the bride.
[1] She began painting at a time when Mexico was nationalistic as well as anti-capitalistic and anti-imperialistic, reinforced by the Mexican muralism movement.
[1] Her first works were formal and rigid focusing on Mexican folklore with bright colors and marked by influence from Diego Rivera, along with geometric forms from Carlos Mérida and the use of fruit from Rufino Tamayo, classified as costumbrista, but also contain Expressionist type elements in the style of María Izquierdo.
[1] In the 1950s, her work evolved with richer and more varied use of color, especially deep greens, blues, oranges, reds and pinks which contrasted with the silent and somber depictions of Mexico's indigenous.
[4] These show changing color compositions with strong influence from Rufino Tamayo with emphasis on yellows, ochres and purples.
In these works, depictions of human beings all but disappear but those of what people create such as houses, roads and more still remain as a form of abstractive figurativism.