Decorative Arts Research Articles

Painted Decorations on Pottery of the Chernihiv Region of the 18th – first Third of the 20th Century

The purpose of the article is to outline the main issues of the following scientific problem – the history of the origin, assortment, and typology of the principal motifs, compositional schemes, and techniques for making painted decor of the Chernihiv region pottery tableware. The research methodology corresponds to the purpose of this study and includes a comprehensive approach to the study, systematisation, and interpretation of the empirical material using historical-comparative, formal-typological, and art analysis methods. The scientific novelty of this study. It is the first attempt at the comprehensive analysis of painted decor as a manifestation of the artistic culture of the population. While working over the material, the origins and evolution of the most common decorative motifs for the decoration of pottery were determined, their art specificity in the regional and national context was considered, classification was done, and a number of works from museum collections were put into scientific circulation. Conclusions. Analysing the pottery-painted decor of the Chernihiv region of the 18th century – the first third of the 20th century, it can be concluded that it developed within the national tradition of Ukrainian pottery, and used its main aesthetic and stylistic principles. The pottery of the region is characterised by a wide range of motifs (geometric, plant-geometrised, plant, zoomorphic, and others), a variety of techniques, and creative manners. The evolution of the painted decor stylistics contains the interaction of traditional and innovative factors, the influence of neighbouring regions' pottery, artistic and other types of decorative art, for example, art – industrial products – earthenware, and porcelain. The painted decor had pronounced regional features of the form, interpretation of motifs and images, compositional schemes, plastic solutions, and colouring.
 Keyword:.pottery, decor, painting, tradition, innovation, artistic features.

Ukrainian theatre avant-garde in the space of museum communication

The aim of the work is to study the principles of museum communication in the processes of exhibiting works by Ukrainian avant-garde theatre artists of the first third of the 20th century in exhibition projects in Ukraine and Estonia in 2014–2023. The research methodology is based on art historical and cultural analysis. The scientific novelty of the study is related to the evolution of museum communication strategies in their focus on the transmission of national messages in the domestic Ukrainian and international cultural space to reveal the specifics of the codes of Ukrainian identity and rethink the achievements of the Ukrainian avant-garde, including the theatrical avant-garde, from the standpoint of decolonising its perception. In this context, the artistic and intellectual models of the exhibitions «Scene of the Ukrainian Avant-Garde» (Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2014), «Futuromarennia» (Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2021–2022) and «Futuromarennia. Ukraine ja avangard» (KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia, 2023) were analysed for the first time. The conclusions state the evolution of communicative models focused on building links between the Ukrainian avant-garde and folk decorative art, the disclosure of inter-artistic relations within the concept of pan-futurism in the space of Ukrainian culture, as well as the presentation of a postcolonial view of the reactivation of the links between Ukrainian and European art in the reflections of avant-garde artists. 
 Keywords: Ukrainian avant-garde, Ukrainian theatrical avant-garde, scenography, theatrical costume, contemporary museum practices, museum communication, visual communication, visual culture.

The Legacy of Soviet Monumental and Decorative Art (on the Example of Tselinograd, Republic of Kazakhstan)

The development of virgin lands (also known as tselina – previously uncultivated or unexplored areas of land, which have not been affected by humans and are typically located in rural or remote regions) has not only boosted the economy but influenced the development of art in Kazakhstan, particularly in Akmolinsk (in 1961 it was renamed Tselinograd, the current name of the city is Astana). Muralists M. Antonyuk and V. Tovtin made a significant contribution to the artistic and aesthetic image of Tselinograd. The purpose of the study is to identify the role of Soviet monumental and decorative art in designing the aesthetics of urban space and to substantiate its historical and cultural value. In this study, the features of stained-glass windows, marquetry, and monumental mosaics of Tselinograd were analysed. Their value as works of art was analysed, the specificities of incorporating national character are described, and their influence on the cultural development of the city is explained. The level of skill of the artists, including the ability to “embed” the artwork in the architectural image of the building is emphasised. The uniqueness of the monumental mosaics of the Soviet period is proved. Conclusions are drawn about their role as agitation. The need to preserve the works of monumental art for future generations is emphasised. This is an important part of the historical period – thoughtless “modernisation” of residential buildings, indifference to and devaluation of the artistic and cultural heritage of the Soviet past are not acceptable.

Austria and Hungary at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair: A Hint of the End

Abstract This article examines the Austrian participation at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, focusing particularly on the display of art. Spread across two venues, the Austrian Pavilion and the Palace of Fine Arts, the display, with contributions from the Mánes Association of Fine Artists, Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka,” the Hagenbund, and the Vienna Künstlergenossenschaft illustrates the changes taking place in Cisleithanian art at the time, with the emergence and increased recognition of nationally organized art societies, whose very existence questioned the long-standing supremacy of Vienna art institutions. A further contrast is made with the Hungarian art exhibition at the same fair. Unlike the Austrian exhibit, housed in its own free-standing exhibition space, the much more modest Hungarian exhibit was divided in two. Fine arts were displayed in the Palace of Fine Arts, while decorative arts and crafts were displayed in a pavilion built inside of the exhibition hall. The author ends by contrasting the 1904 exhibition spaces with those of the 1900 Paris exhibition.

Pre-Hispanic art as an inspiration for decolonizing decorative art museums

Con base en las experiencias docentes, en clases de arte decorativo, en la Universidad Federal de Bahía, este texto busca comprender cómo el dominio ontológico y epistemológico de los pueblos prehispánicos ofrecen caminos inspiradores para la descolonización de los museos de arte decorativo, que en sus exposiciones de larga duración siguen anclados en la cronología y gramáticas estilísticas coloniales del barroco, rococó y neoclásico. Por la vía analítica de la “cronosofía en espirales”, propuesta por Leda Maria Martins, son observados elementos técnicos y decorativos de piezas del Museo del Oro Zenú, de Cartagena-Colombia.

PROJECT METHOD APPLICATION IN TEACHING STUDENTS IN THE SPHERE OF DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ART

The article considers the project method as one of the pedagogical tools of op-timizing classes in the process of teaching students decorative and applied art. The process of implementing creative tasks in developing students’ projects aimed at the formation of professional competencies at the specialty 54.03.02 «Decorative and applied art and crafts» is studied.

Development of glossy and UV-resistant urushi coatings by thermal polymerization

The use and development of natural biomass-based plastics are attracting attention with the aim of limiting environmental pollution and conserving energy resources. Urushi, a natural curing resin traditionally used in numerous applications such as decorative arts, furniture, and tableware, has great potential as an environment-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics. In this study, we produced urushi coatings in a short time using a thermal polymerization method, which is more convenient than the conventional oxidative polymerization method. The thermal polymerization method requires less time and energy than conventional oxidative polymerization and hence is more environmentally friendly. The urushi coatings were exposed to UV-A irradiation for 0–30 days, and the effects of irradiation on the surface were evaluated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, water contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy, gloss measurements, and pencil hardness tests. As a result, we developed functional high-gloss urushi-coated films with excellent hardness using thermal polymerization; these films retain these properties even after prolonged UV-A irradiation.

The Influence of Structuralism on the Formation of Contemporary Ukrainian Plastic Art

The article examines the influence of structuralism on the formation of plastic art in Ukraine in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries. First of all, we are talking about the creativity of the artists working in the field of fine and decorative arts and using wood as a material. It was outlined the defining principles of structuralism based on the works of contemporary researchers. Various structuralist approaches in cultural studies, philosophy and art are considered. For a deeper understanding of the nature of the Ukrainian plastic art the prerequisites for the development of structuralism in the visual arts on the basis of C. Monet's creative revolution and P. Cézanne's deep structural study of nature through geometry have been determined. The importance of P. Mondrian's creative experiments and the concept of neoplasticism introduced by him has been emphasized. The structuralist manifestos of C. Biederman, E. Bornstein and E. Wilmott have been analyzed. The creative method of structural reliefs of the Canadian artist of Ukrainian origin R. Kostyniuk, his inspirations and his own concepts of constructed compositions based on geometric shapes have been studied. In contrast to regular mechanical units and new technical material, the structural sculptures of E. Zelenak revealed the use of biomorphic forms built on the basis of repeating modules. D. Samil's constructed canvases of folded bright planes are mentioned. The article demonstrates the importance of the phenomenon of nonconformism in the Ukrainian artistic environment. Certain peculiarities of the application of theoretical developments in the figurative and plastic author's models of contemporary Ukrainian artists have been highlighted. A number of artistic interpretations and stylistic features in the formation of plastic art in Ukraine in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries have been revealed. The works of Ukrainian and diaspora artists who worked and continue to work in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries in Ukraine and abroad, namely R. Kostyniuk, E. Zelenak, D. Samyla, S. Savchenko, I. Stefiuk, V. Andrushko, Y. Titenkov, N. Symotiuk, D. Shavala, A. Savchuk, and I. Solovyov, have been considered. The research objective is to identify and investigate the influence of structuralism on the formation of contemporary Ukrainian plastic art, as well as to analyze the works of artists who used the structural method in their works. Research methodology. The methods of observation, comparison, analogy, experiment, formal analysis and synthesis have been used. Relevance and scientific novelty. In Ukrainian art history, the concept of "structuralism" in three-dimensional structures, sculpture, and plastic art remains poorly understood and requires a deeper study of the connections between the artist's intentions, materials, as well as the historical and cultural context in which the artwork has been created. The research of the influence of structuralism on contemporary Ukrainian sculpture and other forms of plastic art, which are formed on such basic principles of the structural method as code, sign, structure, symbol, and color, reveals a new critical approach to the interpretation of creative experiments as an identifier of a completely new artistic paradigm.

Mythological Images and Their Interpretations in Jewish Art of Eastern Galicia, 18th – 19th Century

This study analyzes the mythological representations of sea creatures, the hippocampus, and the Leviathan in the Jewish art of Eastern Galicia. It identifies the formation of a distinctive symbolic and sign system within Jewish art, serving as a means to convey fundamental religious and philosophical principles. The prohibition of anthropomorphic depictions contributed to the development of an entire cycle of animalistic and botanical images, illustrating the diaspora Jews' conceptualizations of the Land of Israel, the Jerusalem Temple, the Gardens of Eden, the commandments of the Torah, and the Talmud. Based on the study of artworks, including preserved illustrations from the destroyed synagogues in Khodoriv and Hvizdets during the Holocaust, as well as ritual objects such as Torah shields, Torah reading pointers, Hanukkah lamps, and the decoration of tombstones-matzevot, it has been established that Jewish art developed its own program of ornamentation and the use of symbols and signs. The features of the iconography of mythical sea creatures have been identified. It is emphasized that the traditional representation of the hippocampus as a creature with the body of half horse and half fish in Jewish art monuments was replaced by depictions of a creature with the body of half goat and half fish, or half lion and half fish. Such transformations can be explained by the influence of folklore and the reinterpretation of folk art. The symbolism of the hippocampus is associated with perceptions of the sea that surrounds the Land of Israel and serves as a metaphor for the transition to another, beautiful, paradisiacal world. The iconography of the depiction of the Leviathan is also connected to its symbolism. The Leviathan coiled in a ring is a traditional symbol of anticipation of messianic times, and the Leviathan coiled around a city or specific structures embodies the concept of the temple, alluding to a sacred space, as the skin of the mythical creature will be used for the tent of the righteous. Representations of the hippocampus and Leviathan on tombstones-matzevot embody the idea of anticipating messianic times and resurrection. The exploration of symbolism in Jewish representational and decorative art provides insight into the traditional Jewish culture of Eastern Galicia.

Post-Studio Tendencies of the World Glass Art: Role of Institutional Influence

The main objective of the study is to initiate a discussion in the art environment regarding actualizing stylistic features according to the gradual domination of conceptual art practices in the creative work of the active generation of glass artists. The question of assuming a significant era in the development of artistic glass – the International Studio Glass Movement – arises with the emergence of a world art discourse of a growing array of practices built on the principles of conceptual arts. The study reveals the role of the most influential institutions in stimulating young artists to use rather non-classical instruments of creative realization for the studio glass artistic expression. The exhibition and information activities of the leading institutions of three continents – America, Europe, and Asia: the Glass Art Society, the glass museums in Corning (USA), Ebeltoft (Denmark), and Shanghai (China) are taken into account. The brightest examples of art pieces by artists from different countries where the artistic idea and conceptual metaphor play a critical role despite aesthetics or unique design have been selected and analyzed. The recently realized projects of two Ukrainian artists of different generations – Professor Andriy Bokotey (Lviv) and his student Viktor Melnychuk (Uzhhorod) – are also considered in the article. Several installations, performances, and works with a multimedia or interactive component, exhibited as a final work by foreign artists and participants of the International Blown Glass Symposiums in Lviv, are described here. The performance by the famous world-known Czech glass artist Jiri Suhajek in the framework of the II International Blown Glass Symposium, 1992, is stressed as the first performative creative realization for the Ukrainian audience. His intuitive activity set a precedent for a new direction in artistic glassmaking. It is concluded that according to the broad set of features, a significant part of the 2010-2020 glass artists’ activities goes far beyond the accepted canons for studio glassmaking. Thus, summing up, it is stated that the significant stage in modern culture – the International Studio Movement, which brought the generally accepted artistic means for decorative art into the domain of fine arts – became the basis for the development of the next direction in the civilizational ladder.

The Canon No Longer Applies: How the Fine Arts (N) Range of the Library of Congress Classification System Perpetuates Bias by Privileging Fine Art Over Craft

Neutrality is one of the founding principles of library classification; however, systems reflect the biases of the societies that created them. Many articles have been written on bias in the Library of Congress Classification System (LCC) and its subject headings (LCSH). But how is bias evident in the Fine Arts (N) range?One answer to this question lays in the writings of Hope A. Olson who argues that systems like LCC are inherently prejudiced because of their use of universality, which results in hierarchical relationships and Derridean binaries. This is problematic because library classification, according to Olson, functions as a third-space, a place where meaning is created.Reading the Fine Arts range through Olson's work reveals a system that perpetuates bias by reconstructing the western canon of art history through its privileging of fine art over craft. While each of the fine arts are given their own subclasses, craft mediums are located under one subclass, Decorative Arts (NK), giving them a lesser than status. Artists and art historians have argued that the valuing of fine art over craft in the western canon, something clearly seen in LCC, is a consequence of patriarchal and colonialist power systems.

Proiskhozhdenie dekorativnogo oformleniya i stilya v eksportnom farfore vo vremena dinastij Min i Cin

Taking the export porcelain in the Ming and Qing dynasties (l6th-19th centuries) as an example, this article analyzes the aesthetic implications of the decorative art design of Eastern and Western porcelain from the perspective of decorative art design.

A methodological approach to the organization of the understanding of the decorative image by future specialists of decorative and applied arts

The study highlights the methodological approach to organizing the creative process of future specialists in decorative and applied arts of a higher pedagogical educational institution under conditions of the modern education system of Ukraine. The purpose of the study was to present the content of special methodological work on how to organize the creative process aimed at forming students' understanding of the decorative image features. The problem is how to achieve a high result of creative tasks, students' works, along with the development of technologies for painting fabrics (batik), which together will help a future specialist to become a professional in the future. The methods of the study were: theoretical – the analysis of scientific sources on the problem related to the formation and determination of its formation signs in students; practical – the analysis of pedagogical experience – in order to highlight effective forms of work with students within the educational environment of a higher education institution, which contributes to the formation of students' understanding of the organization of the creative process. The professional literacy of the future specialist majoring in 023 "Fine Arts and Decorative Arts, Restoration" is based on his/her ability to build activities according to aesthetic laws (to understand contemporary fine and decorative arts, folk art); it consists of a system of special knowledge and skills. It is substantiated that folk art is our self-identification, we need to know the traditions of our people, modern fine arts; it is important to revive them in original modern forms, to promote the development of experimental trends, to work creatively with folk paintings in the process of teaching the disciplines of the course "Decorative and Applied Arts", to show how promising it is today. The article describes the methodological approach to the organization of the creative process in solving the thematic tasks within the academic course "Fundamentals of Fabric Painting". One of the ways to renew assignments of the academic disciplines "Fundamentals of Fabric Painting" and “Decorative and Applied Arts" has been presented. It is shown that on the basis of the conducted pedagogical experiment and its results, the creative activity of understanding and creating a decorative image as a holistic process that improves professional skill and competence is confirmed. We see the prospects of scientific research in the extension of the study of the necessary modern methodology which develops students' interest in various types of activities, including scientific, research-centred, artistic and creative, as well as in the increasingly extensive implementation of methodological findings in the process of studying Decorative and Applied Arts.

ESSENCE, LAWS AND MEANS OF COMPOSITION ACTIVITY IN THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING AND MANUFACTURING PRODUCTS OF DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ART

The article substantiates the relevance of introducing information about the artistic direction into the training of future technological education specialists; attention is paid to the importance of art education during training of future teachers. It has been established that the future teacher of technological education must possess professional competencies that increase the efficiency of designing and manufacturing decorative and applied art products, which include competencies in the basics of compositional activity. In order to form these competencies, the educational process of training future technology teachers should include information that can enrich students with theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in fine and decorative and applied arts in the content of both basic and elective disciplines. Emphasis is placed on the expediency of studying the main concepts, laws and means of compositional activity in the process of training specialists in the field of technological education, the content of the main concepts, laws and means of composition is revealed and the importance of their application in the process of designing and manufacturing products of decorative and applied art is proven; the advantages of students’ use of professional competences in the design process are revealed and their effectiveness in the implementation of creative tasks is shown. It has been established that having mastered the basics of compositional activity during the design and manufacture of decorative and applied art products, students will be able to practically solve rather complex tasks of creating aesthetic compositions that will correspond to the selected material and the functional purpose of the object decorated in the process of artistic and labor activity.
 Keywords: professional competences; composition activity; technology teachers; decorative and applied art; design of products.

Ine, Decorative Art & Design: Current Issues Of The Terminology Correlation.

The aim of the article. To find out the current theoretical and terminological activity caused by the nostrification of artistic and educational processes in Ukraine and the world using educational administration. It is noted that schematics and unification come into conflict with the historically formed terminology in the field of methods of art and design education, which have become the historical image of schools. The global civilizational changes that radically weakened the resistance and ability to self-development of authentic varieties of art are considered. The loss of immunity from unification affected the field of terminology, which is a kind of indicator of changes. The starting position of novelty is the understanding that art is not a resource bound in artificial terminological schemes, but a self-sufficient value. Practical significance. Considering the old and new paradigms, building your system of values is recommended, which are concentrated in the field of terminology. Based on the analysis of a large block of literature, it is recommended to preserve the educational programs "Aesthetics", and "Philosophy of Art" as fundamental in Art Academies of modern Ukraine. The conducted analysis of the literature draws attention to the terminological developments of the Faculty of History and Theory of Art of the Lviv National Academy of Arts, which require systematic continuation. Main results. It has been observed that the obsessive juxtaposition of classical and non-classical vectors of creation, as well as "old and new" terminological systems, psychologically traumatizes artists. Contrasting and unifying involuntarily distorts the truth, and thus harms the art itself. During the periods of Ukraine's statelessness, the enemies politically "justified" the new terms as "relevant" and interpreted the national terms as "obsolete". It is recommended that artists-pedagogues and art historians establish the mission of interpreters and "talismans" of the primary and newest values of fine, applied art and design. The need to correlate artistic and administrative-educational terminology in one's language has been put forward as a major problem. In particular, using the example of fine and decorative arts, it is proposed to use the existing administrative and terminological division of specialties "by default". However, the content-conceptual part of educational programs should be enriched with a historically verified spectrum of terms and concepts with their inherent local connotations. It has been observed that in the historical-artistic and sacral-morphological sense, the term "applied art" is not the same as "craft". The relevance of the commonly used by leading Ukrainian art critics of the 19th and early 20th centuries has been proven of the term "applied": that which is "in life", "in use". It is emphasized that global civilizational changes have radically weakened the resilience and ability to self-develop authentic varieties of applied art. The loss of immunity from administrative unification hurt the field of terminology, which is a kind of indicator of changes

Historical and Cultural Aspects of the Formation of Russian Decorative and Applied Arts

The article examines the historical and cultural aspects of the processes of formation of artistic tradition in Russian decorative and applied arts and folk crafts from the XI to the middle of the XV century. Using the example of outstanding pieces of various types and directions of decorative art, the main periods and stages of the formation of the general stylistics of the masters’ creativity and the ways of spreading similar artistic and figurative solutions are determined. The examples given by the author touch upon issues directly related to the processes of integration of Russian traditional crafts and decorative art with the creativity of Byzantium, Scandinavia, Central Europe and the culture of the peoples of the European part of Russia, which were subjected to the expansion of the Northern Slavic tribes. The author defines the development of the Russian artistic tradition as the active introduction of individual elements and figurative solutions of various sources into the basic Slavic culture, based on the preserved monuments of architecture, art and printed writing. The research is based on the works of archaeologists, art historians and artists, which are fundamental works on the history and theory of decorative and applied arts (A.N. Kirpichnikova, M.A. Orlova, B.A. Rybakov, etc.). A comparative analysis of the current state of certain types of Russian decorative and applied arts, traditional and folk crafts, taking into account the influence of technological transformations on authentic techniques and materials. The author’s conclusions are based on many years of experience in studying decorative and applied arts as a factor in the development of professional competencies of students of art universities and institutions of additional education in the process of becoming independent masters and artists.

Modernizing Sculpture: Print Culture and the New Discourse on Sculpture in China, circa 1880–1929

Abstract Much of the current scholarship on the art of China in the 1910s and 1920s focuses on artworks, art academies, and art groups that were associated either with traditional Chinese painting (guohua 國畫) or with oil painting (youhua 油畫). By contrast, other mediums such as sculpture have rarely been discussed by scholars of modern Chinese art. Similar to guohua, the association of which with lofty literati values and imperial eras was hotly debated at the beginning of the Republic of China (1912–1949), the art of sculpture – a category that has long been considered as funerary art, craft, or decorative art – and its relevance to modern China was also discussed by artists and intellectuals at that time. In early twentieth-century China, sculpture eventually gained a new status within the fine arts. This article argues that one important factor that promoted the changing perception of sculpture in the public sphere was the blossoming print culture and its connections with photography and exhibitions in Republican China. Print materials such as newspapers, newspaper supplements, pictorial magazines, and exhibition catalogs/pamphlets promoted the process of modernizing sculpture.

Eric fighting in Guatemala. Adaptation and proximation of medieval Arthurian literature in Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Erec y Enide

Abstract Europe boasts a large number of traditions and cultures which coexist in a relatively small space. However, despite this, different literary motifs and topics have been readapted and transformed into other different traditions. The Arthurian legend is a prime example of this. Whilst it originated in the British Isles, it rapidly expanded throughout the continent in many different cultural manifestations, from poetry to decorative arts, music to drama. The Arthurian legend acquired special importance in France, where Chrétien de Troyes’s Erec et Enide gave it a courtly touch. The Welsh version of the story, Geraint ap Erbin, is less courtly than its French counterpart but keeps elements proper to the Welsh tradition. Thus, the Arthurian legend developed in different cultural traditions throughout the Middle Ages and it is the object of readaptations even today. Erec et Enide was recently rewritten and readapted into Spanish as a contemporary story focusing on modern-day problems. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Erec y Enide is an exceptional example of intercultural practice tailored to a culture (or even cultures) different from the original one in which it was composed. This article analyses the process of transferring and recreating the European medieval time and space of the French and Welsh texts into a Latin-American contemporary context, where brigands and thieves are substituted by henchmen and guerrillas and argues how translation can play a key role in the recreation of the medieval world in a contemporary setting.

Ion Puiu - outstanding personality in decorative theatrical art from Republic of Moldova

One of the most representative personalities in the field of decorative theatrical art from Republic of Moldova was Ion Puiu. The artist has been working since the beginning of the 70s of the 20th century and until the first decades of the 21th century. The artist brought his contribution to the national culture as an actor, director, playwright and scenographer. Ever since his student years, I. Puiu has been passionate about scenographic art and, after graduating from the Art Institute, the young man works as an actor at the Academic Theater ”A. S. Puşkin” from Chişinău. In 1971, I. Puiu began his professional activity as a painter-scenographer at the Republican Theater for Children and Youth „Luceafărul”. From 1974 until 1996, he works as the chief scenographer at the ”Vasile Alecsandri” Theater in Bălţi. This period constituted a real stage in the scenographer’s creation, being already an experienced and professional artist in the field. Since 1981, he has worked as a chief scenographer at the ”Vasile Alecsandri” from Bălţi, combining in the most harmonious way the work of scenographer with that of director.

The Avant-Garde Phenomenon in the Ukrainian Textile Art of the XX Century

The early XX th century is a bright phenomenon in the history of decorative art in Ukraine. This is a period of active cooperation between famous avant-garde artists and folk-art masters. The article examines a unique creative experiment of professional and folk artists implemented in the A. Semigradova`s craft workshops in the village of Skoptsy and N. Davydova`s craft workshops in the village of Verbovka. It was these workshops that had differences in their artistic orientation. The art of the famous folk craftswomen G. Sobachko, P. Vlasenko, G. Tsybulyova, who came from there, is analyzed in the article. The works of the professional artists A. Ekster, K. Malevich, L. Popova, O. Rozanova, N. Genke-Meller also are being studied. The folk craftsmen embroidered artistic works based on their sketches and performed ideas of suprematism in this way. Professional artists paid attention to embroidery as the most expressive type of decorative art. It is indicated that the artistic style of decorative panels, carpets, as well as interior decoration and costume items was a new word in the art and brought Ukrainian embroidery to the highest level of development. Such cooperation contributed to the mutual enrichment of the works of folk-art masters and avant-garde artists. Joint innovative research proves the fact that the Ukrainian embroidery of the early XX century, developed in the context of artistic trends at that time, was a synthesis of decorative and fine arts.