The Art Applied to Business

The article presents an overview of Russian authors’ publications, mainly from the first issues of the journal “Technical Aesthetics” of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE). The purpose of this study is to highlight the controversial issues and problems relevant at the initial stages of forming the theory of a new type of artistic and industrial activities: technical aesthetics. The study’s relevance is determined by the fact that in the theory of design, at present, the aspect of the “art — design” linking is considered systemically incomplete. While the stages of the development of Russian design in chronological and biographical perspectives are covered quite fully by K.M. Kantor, N.V. Voronov, Yu.V. Nazarov, G.V. Vershinin and a number of other authors, but the theoretical aspects require further research development.

The years of the Institute’s active work (1960s—1980s) are called fruitful in conceptual, scientific and creative terms, it was then that the professional model of the service and interaction between design and the planned economy was finally formed. The article shows that, at that time, intensive discussions of the main problems of artistic design and the provisions of aesthetics were reflected in regular publications of a number of periodicals, especially the journals “Technical Aesthetics” and “Decorative Art of the USSR”; and the difficult question of the criteria for evaluating the aesthetic qualities of industrial products turned out to be paramount. The term “artistic construction” implied the solution of the problem of bringing art and science closer to industry. In this process, in the discourse of the principles of technical and aesthetic creativity, all employees of the Institute — theorists and practitioners who would become outstanding design specialists — took part.

The VNIITE’s activities met the demand of the time, the task of national importance — to establish mass production of a decent aesthetic level of industrial products. The period of 1964—1969 is the first stage in the study of the Soviet design formation history and is associated with intensive studying the heritage of the 1920s, introducing new materials into scientific circulation, formulating a number of new problems, and developing criteria for an objective assessment of many phenomena. It was accompanied by a number of difficulties in the relation between the settings of artistic construction and Russian art studies. This article justifies the importance of the work of the pioneers in the field of design in connection with other fields of art, and specifically with architecture and printing.

1. Aronov A.A. Russia of the 20th Century, Mirovaya khudozhestvennaya kul’tura. Rossiya. Konets XIX — XX vek: eksperimental’noe uchebnoe posobie... [World Art Culture. Russia. Late 19th — 20th Century: experimental textbook...]. Moscow, AZ Publ., 1998, 357 p. (in Russ.).

2. Chernenko K.U., Smirtyukova M.S. (comps.) Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of April 28, 1962, No 394 “On Improving the Quality of Mechanical Engineering Products and Cultural and Household Goods by Introducing Methods of Artistic Design”, Resheniya partii i pravitel’stva po khozyaistvennym voprosam: sbornik dokumentov za 50 let [Decisions of the Party and the Government on Economic Issues: collected documents for 50 years], vol. 5, 1962—1965. Moscow, Politizdat Publ., 1968, pp. 64—68, 750 p. (in Russ.).

3. Bonnier M. Technical Aesthetics and Artistic Design in Belgium, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1965, no. 3, pp. 30—31 (in Russ.).

4. Daibor K. The Department of Industrial Forms Design of the Warsaw Academy of Arts, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1965, no. 9, p. 27 (in Russ.).

5. Shnaidt K. Is the Bauhaus Pedagogical System Relevant Today? Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1965, pp. 25—29 (in Russ.).

6. Tandy J. Packaging Design at “Tandy, Halford & Mills”, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1966, no. 4, pp. 12—13 (in Russ.).

7. Kratkaya stenogramma seminara v Bryugge [A Brief Transcript of the Seminar in Bruges]. Moscow, VNIITE Publ., 1964, 68 p.

8. Voronov N.V. On the Issues of Artistic Design, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1964, no. 6, pp. 6—7 (in Russ.).

9. Voronov N.V. Chto takoe dizain? [What Is Design?]. Moscow, Znanie Publ., 1969, 40 p.

10. Ivanov K.A. On the Nature and Essence of Design, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1965, no. 3, pp. 21—25 (in Russ.).

11. Kagan M.S. The Communist Party’s Policy in the Field of Art during the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism, Istoriya iskusstv [Art History]. Leningrad, Leningradskogo Universiteta Publ., 1955, pp. 3—66 (in Russ.).

12. Marder A. Function and Aesthetics: Some Issues of Interrelation, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1967, no. 2, pp. 14—16 (in Russ.).

13. Rezolyutsiya Pervogo vsesoyuznogo s’’ezda sovetskikh khudozhnikov [Resolution of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Artists]. Moscow, Sovetskii Khudozhnik Publ., 1958, 22 p.

14. Kagan M.S. Lektsii po marksistsko-leninskoi estetike. Ch. 3. Dialektika khudozhestvennogo razvitiya [Lectures on Marxist-Leninist Aesthetics. Part 3. Dialectics of Artistic Development]. Leningrad, Leningradskogo Universiteta Publ., 1966, 216 p.

15. Glazychev V.L. Dizain kak on est’ [Design as It Is]. Moscow, Evropa Publ., 2013, 318 p.

16. Somov Yu.S. On Two Directions in Modern Design, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1967, no. 4, pp. 9—12 (in Russ.).

17. Lyakhov V.N. O khudozhestvennom konstruirovanii knigi; sistemnoe proektirovanie; funktsional’nyi analiz [On the Artistic Design of Books; System Design; Functional Analysis]. Moscow, Kniga Publ., 1975, 96 p.

18. Lyakhov V.N. What the Specificity of Artistic Design Is, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1965, no. 11, pp. 2—3 (in Russ.).

19. Lyakhov V.N. Looking for the Beautiful, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1968, no. 10, pp. 1—3 (in Russ.).

20. Lyakhov V.N., Shekhov B. For the Creative Study of Composition, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1967, no. 9, pp. 2—4 (in Russ.).

21. Ganzen V., Kudin P., Lomov B. On Harmony and Composition, Tekhnicheskaya estetika [Technical Aesthetics], 1969, no. 4, pp. 1—3 (in Russ.).

22. Moles A. Teoriya informatsii i esteticheskoe vospriyatie [Information Theory and Aesthetic Perception]. Moscow, Mir Publ., 1966, 352 p.

23. Ilyichev L.F. (ed.) Aristotle, Filosofskii entsiklopedicheskii slovar’ [Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow, Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya Publ., 1983, pp. 36—37 (in Russ.).

24. Teoreticheskie i metodologicheskie issledovaniya v dizaine: izbr. materialy [Theoretical and Methodological Research in Design: selected materials]. Moscow, Shk. Kul’tur. Politiki Publ., 2004, 371 p.

25. Prokhorov A.M. (ed.) Bol’shaya sovetskaya entsiklopediya [Great Soviet Encyclopedia], vol. 25: Strunino — Tikhoretsk. Moscow, Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya Publ., 1976, pp. 527—528.

26. Arbat Yu.A. The Art Applied to Business, Krasota vokrug nas [Beauty around Us]. Moscow, Gosizdat Mestnoi Promyshlennosti i Khudozhestvennykh Promyslov Publ., 1962, 176 p. (in Russ.).

27. Voronov V. “Pure” and “Applied” Art, Iskusstvo v proizvodstve: sborniki Khudozhestvenno-proizvodstvennogo soveta. Otdel izobrazitel’nykh iskusstv Narkomprosa [Art in Industry: Collections of the Artistic-Industrial Council. The Department of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat of Education]. Moscow, 1921, no. 1, pp. 19—27 (in Russ.).

28. Kagan M.S. Morfologiya iskusstva [Morphology of Art]. Leningrad, Iskusstvo Publ., 1972, 440 p.

29. Filippov A. Industrial Art, Iskusstvo v proizvodstve: sborniki Khudozhestvenno-proizvodstvennogo soveta. Otdel izobrazitel’nykh iskusstv Narkomprosa [Art in Industry: Collections of the Artistic-Industrial Council. The Department of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat of Education]. Moscow, 1921, no. 1, pp. 9—12 (in Russ.).

30. Toporkov A. Technical Form and Artistic Form, Iskusstvo v proizvodstve: sborniki Khudozhestvenno-proizvodstvennogo soveta. Otdel izobrazitel’nykh iskusstv Narkomprosa [Art in Industry: Collections of the Artistic-Industrial Council. The Department of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat of Education]. Moscow, 1921, no. 1, pp. 28—33 (in Russ.).

31. Arkin D. Fine Arts and Material Culture, Iskusstvo v proizvodstve: sborniki Khudozhestvenno-proizvodstvennogo soveta. Otdel izobrazitel’nykh iskusstv Narkomprosa [Art in Industry: Collections of the Artistic-Industrial Council. The Department of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat of Education]. Moscow, 1921, no. 1, pp. 13—18 (in Russ.).

32. Arkin D.E. Iskusstvo bytovoi veshchi: ocherki noveishei khudozhestvennoi promyshlennosti [The Art of Everyday Things: Essays on the Latest Art Industry]. Moscow, Izogiz Publ., 1932, 170 p.

33. Kirikov B.M. Arkhitektura Peterburgskogo moderna [The Architecture of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau]. St. Petersburg, Kolo Publ., 2008, 574 p.

34. Begenau S.H. Funktsiya, forma, kachestvo [Function, Form, Quality]. Moscow, Mir Publ., 1969, 168 p.

35. Rappaport A.G. Third Design, Problemy dizaina: sbornik statei [Design Issues: collected articles]. Moscow, Soyuz Dizainerov Rossii Publ., 2003, pp. 199—235 (in Russ.).

36. Vershinin G.V. Design and Art: “Dangerous Connections”? Problemy dizaina-3: sbornik statei [Design Issues-3: collected articles]. Moscow, Arkhitektura-S Publ., 2005, pp. 254—274 (in Russ.).

37. Nazarov Yu.V. Interior Phenomenon, Problemy dizaina: sbornik statei [Design Issues: collected articles]. Moscow, Soyuz Dizainerov Rossii Publ., 2003, pp. 59—77 (in Russ.).

38. Rosenthal R., Ratzka H. Istoriya prikladnogo iskusstva novogo vremeni [The Story of Modern Applied Art]. Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1971, 223 p.