'A Glass without a Bottom': Neodecorativism in Late 1960s Soviet Design

In the 1950s, Soviet decorative artists, under the influence of the incipient industrial design profession, chose utility, modesty and the ability for mass reproduction as the chief criteria for their work. Some critics envisioned a confluence of decorative art and industrial design. However, from the 1960s the two professional activities gradually diverged, as decorative artists started reconsidering their role in industry, emphasizing decorative aspects of their work and proposing the notion of 'spiritual utility'. Believing that mass production had become the responsibility of industrial designers, these artists turned to experimenting with techniques, forms and colours. The resulting artworks were unique or of limited edition, intended for exhibitions, where they appeared as conceptual objects, inviting the viewers to rethink their notions of design and decoration. This article contributes to the study of Soviet design by identifying a specific phenomenon of the 1960s, for which I offer the term 'neodecorativism'. It traces the Soviet decorative art's turn from 'honest objects' to provocative objects that transcended the logic of mass production and questioned the principles of post-war Soviet aesthetics.