doll art

For three days the huge halls of the Gostiny Dvor are given over to dolls. There are hundreds, no, thousands of dolls made of the most delicate porcelain, wood, plastic, textiles and paper. The Moscow International Exhibition “Doll Art” was and remains one of the largest puppet exhibitions in the world.

The scale and composition of the expositions of the presented works is impressive – all types and directions of modern and antique dolls, designer toys and Teddy bears.

A doll is a socio-cultural object that carries both artistic and socially determined meanings. The doll appeared, lived and lives as a unique object at the intersection of art and social phenomena of history, a doll is always a reflection of human nature.

More than 1,000 artists, designers and craftsmen, whose professional activities are related to the author’s, art doll, collectible Teddy bears and unusually creative toys, take part in the unique exhibition “The Art of the Doll”. Puppeteers present tens of thousands of exhibits to visitors: puppets of the shadow theater of the East and “puppet glamor”, industrial puppets of the Soviet period and traditional puppets of the peoples of the world, mechanical and interior, theatrical and cartoon, hampelmann puppets, marotte puppets, Barbie, punk puppets, static and moving, as realistic as possible and as abstract as possible. There are also antique dolls from private collections, and an exposition dedicated to the depiction of dolls in paintings and photographs by contemporary artists. Next to porcelain luxurious beauties, ironic characteristic characters coexist peacefully, like moments of our life that have stopped.

A special section of the exhibition this year is angel dolls. Today, the theme of amulets, guardians, protectors from trouble has passed through every heart, and artists have reflected it in their work. Slavic goddesses, archaic images of ancient peoples, totem amulets and punks, coastlines and foremothers of the Russian land, savior angels are a great cultural heritage and myths of ancestors. Creative people unite to create goodness and beauty with the promise of peace to all, and puppet angels unite to protect us from enmity and malice.

The exposition “Phantasmagoria of the Russian soul” fascinates with old fairy tales, songs, dances and philosophical studies of the mysterious Russian soul, shows its versatility, originality, independence, breadth and beauty through the art of piling up images, visions, fantasies. The cultural code of traditional rituals, their mystery and innuendo, the materialized non-verbal – there were no such dolls at the exhibition before.

The puppets help the viewer to explore Shakespeare’s Passions based on famous plays; the Queen of England exposition echoes the story of William Our Shakespeare. Her heroines are two women whose fates were influenced by England and the throne: Victoria and Elizabeth. The project is interesting not only as an artistic excursion into the history of Britain, but also as a story about their purely feminine influence on the life of the British. The story of Elizabeth II is told through the story of the creation of her coronation dress, which is a museum masterpiece and filled with deep meaning.

Another thematic research art project is dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the legendary and adored teddy bear Teddy, which, together with the artists, is presented by specialists from the Darwin Museum. This is a fascinating story of the relationship between homo sapiens and a bear, from real cave animals to modern design interpretations of this image in toys, clothes, and interiors.

The dim light of candelabra among the draperies of cherry velvet – the Scarlet Rose project looks so mysterious, here the dolls are the images of legendary literary characters, including Casanova, the Phantom of the Opera, Count Dracula, Beauty and the Beast.

Scared? Then we will return to the world of a good fairy tale, where traditional New Year and Christmas characters are waiting for us, and not only Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden, but also other heroes of folklore associated with the change of the year and ancient rituals: Lyubava, Lel, Hare, Kozuli …

The 2022 exhibition will go down in history with the demonstration of the world’s first dolls created by a neural network! It has already become customary that neural networks write music, play chess, draw pictures, but it is the creation of the DOLL object by a neural network that is much larger than an attempt at creative action, it is going beyond the scope of an exclusively creative act.

On the eve of the holidays, at the exhibition you can buy unique handmade gifts, limited editions of cotton and glass Christmas toys, your favorite touching Teddy bears, as well as materials for creating dolls and bears.

Mikhail Kovalyov.

Author’s photo