Tradition and Adaptation in Russian Folk Art

Abstract

Abstract Objects made for the Russian peasant household reflect the customs, beliefs, and resources of each region. Decoration of the dwelling (izba), implements such as distaffs, and festive clothing accompanied religious rituals and social life; and their designs often shared the rhythms of folk music and dance. Peasant families engaged in weaving, woodwork, and pottery for their own use or for trade, while specialists handled architectural carving and other complex crafts. The interdependence of peasant villages, gentry estates, and markets near monasteries and towns affected the evolution of all folk arts. This chapter describes the main forms and materials, the sources and meanings of designs, and the variations that show artists’ adaptations to historical events and social change. The relationships among elements of folk culture and concepts of national identity continue to stimulate research and creative responses. What one folk artist described as an elastic “thread of tradition,” the merging of individual creativity with a sense of regional and national culture, is essential to the cumulative originality of folk art.