The glass collection in the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts

Abstract

The article discusses the main principles and sources of the formation of the glass collection at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts, Moscow. Particular attention is paid to the ‘second half of the twentieth — early twenty-first centuries’ department, in the light of the contemporary universal Glass Studio movement. The author characterizes the leading artists of this period as well as the most unique oeuvres which determined aesthetic vectors at different stages of the Glass Art development. The changing features of the art objects’ existence in the exhibition environment are analyzed, with an accent on the presentation of museum pieces within large-scale exhibition projects and various creative presentations in Russia and abroad. The artistic and cultural importance of the art object, together with the high-quality execution level, remain the pivotal criteria of identifying contemporary objects of “museum status”, during the on-going process of enriching the collection in question.