Abstract

The subject of the analysis is the Russian avant‑garde art of textile and clothes design as a manifestation of the artists’ desire for a change of the aesthetics of the surrounding environment and as an innovative form of artistic expression. Two models of textile and clothes design are discussed on the basis of works by supremacists (K. Malewicz, N. Sujetin, I. Czasznik), constructivists (W. Tatlin, A. Rodczenko, El Lissitzsky, O. Rozanowa, W. Stiepanowa, L. Popowa, A. Ekster, N. Gonczarowa, S. Delaunay, etc.) and textile artists employed by textile
industry (W. Masłow, S. Burylin, M. Anufriewa, W. Łotonina, etc.). Apart from decorative textile art inspired by painting, which is described as abstract, geometrical design, there is also thematic and programme design based on propaganda motifs and visual narration which refers to important events and changes that took place in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. Both models of textile and clothes design, which interpenetrate and complement each other, are shaped by cultural dialogue based on binary models: canonical — non‑canonical,
traditional — modern, rationalist — irrational (autonomy of creative consciousness), work — fashionable, male — female, manufactured — high‑technology, unique — mass‑produced.
At the level of theory and artistic practice textile design is determined by such factors as: the concept of blurred boundaries between art and life, beauty and utility, Malewicz’s suprematist philosophy of design, constructivist and industrial theory, and formal experiments.