Noir et blanc. The Colour Black in St. Petersburg Porcelain of the 20th–21st Centuries

Abstract

In the article, the researcher identified and analyzed in detail the main strategies for working with black colour in St. Petersburg porcelain of the 20th–21st centuries. Porcelain artists actively worked with graphic compositions executed in black. In propaganda porcelain, black was used to write slogans and depict emblems, portraits and decorative elements. It occupied a special place in decorative and fairy-tale compositions.

Sergey Chekhonin created an original version of graphics in porcelain. It has become a source of inspiration for his contemporaries and artists of the following generations. Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Georgy Narbut also introduced the use of black silhouettes in porcelain. In the 1960s, graphics on porcelain and the traditions of the "World of Art" once again became relevant. In porcelain of the late 20th–21st centuries, graphics also took its place in author's items, mass products and "reproduction" works.

The conceptual use of black was characteristic of the avant-garde porcelain. The ideas of the avant-garde were developed in the porcelain of the "Thaw" and in contemporary designer porcelain. Porcelain artists of the 21st century — Inna Olevskaya, Mikhail Sorokin, Julia Zhukova, Sergey Rusakov — learned "suprematist lessons" and conducted a consistent "dialogue with the avant-garde".

The porcelain of the "Thaw" offered a decorative use of black (the use of covering, sgraffito technique, the creation of free pictorial compositions, imitation of the effects of drip glazes, the inclusion of black in landscape paintings). It was actively used to create minimalist paintings in the "modern style" and innovative interpretations of ornaments. Decorative use of black color would be continued in designer porcelain of the late 20th–21st centuries.

The author concluded that work with black in St. Petersburg porcelain was consistent and varied. The stylistic features of working with black were determined by the general character of the aesthetics of porcelain art in different periods, the creative individuality of the artists and technical capabilities.

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