Aesthetic Features of the Museum’s Cast Iron Collection

The Krasnoyarsk Art Museum named after V.I. Surikov has kept cast objects made at the Ural art and industrial factories of the Chelyabinsk region since the second half of the 20th century. The question about the aesthetic properties of this trend of decorative and applied arts worries today’s museum community, because even castings of the late 20th century are gradually acquiring museum value. The article considers examples of cast iron castings as an aesthetic phenomenon. Most of them were produced at the Kasli factory, and there are also examples of castings from the Ural town of Kusa. The problem of studying decorative-applied arts is one of the most difficult in art history, because it is necessary to evaluate not only the content quality, but also the purpose of the object, its functionality and decorativeness. As a result of the study it was concluded that in relation to cast iron the dialectical approach is applicable, in particular related to the concept of culture as an ideal-forming side of human life activity. Thus, the animalistic and portrait genres of cabinet sculpture are more often a harmonious balance of the decorative and applied. The aesthetic function prevails over the utilitarian one in household, ethnographic (visual-anthropological) genres. This function has an aspect of non-utilitarian pleasure (A.M. Losev’s concept). In particular, it is associated with the expansion of the former educational boundaries of the viewer, sensual contemplation of the recipient. Thus, the aesthetic function of an arts and crafts work increases with the formation of a dialogue between the viewer and the work of art on the basis of a non-utilitarian relationship with the object.

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