Alexei Vasilyevich Filippov and the State Museum of Ceramics

Abstract

This article refers to previously unknown pages in the history of State Museum of Ceramics – its functioning as an industrial museum. The transformation of the Museum of Porcelain Art into the “industrial” State Museum of Ceramics took place in conditions of escalating discussion on the need for creating "industrial art” in the USSR. One of the initiators of such direction was the ceramic artist A. V. Filippov. His name earlier was not associated with the State Museum of Ceramics; however, Filippov contributed to the emergence of art-industrial laboratory in the museum structure, which not only experimented with manufacturing glazes and ceramic mixtures, but also set the production process. The novelty of this article lies in introduction into the scientific discourse of previously unknown archival documents, which allows tracing the history of origin of the art and ceramic laboratory. It was deemed that the structural division was opened in the State Museum of Ceramics. However, the laboratory was originally founded by A. V. Filippov at the Faculty of Ceramics of the Russian State Art and Technical School, then transferred to the Institute of Silicate Chemistry, and only in 1928 transferred from the Institute to the museum. The establishment of the laboratory has prompted a significant shift in the vector of development of the museum towards instusrial museum. It is also proven that Filippov developed the concept of exhibitory-manufacturing department in the museum, which included educational activity with interactive elements. These museum competencies would be in demand in the world museum practice only by the late XX century, which determines the activity of the State Museum of Ceramics during 1920s as innovative.