Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva: a study of the functions of an artist, teacher, scientist and public figure

Stalinskaya Ekaterina Pavlovna ORCID: 0000-0001-7692-7804 PhD in Art History Associate Professor, Art History Department, Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design 191187, Russia, Saint Petersburg, trans. Salt, 13 estalinskaya@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Of undoubted interest for scientific study is the personal aspect and the specific experience of Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva's participation in the progressive development of Russian art. This article offers a careful study of the fate and unique pedagogical experience of the Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, artist, Doctor of Art History, professor of the Pedagogical University named after A. I. Herzen.

The creative legacy of Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva

Figure 1. Portrait of O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva

Since childhood, Olga was passionate about drawing, it was her favorite and main occupation. She attended the art studio first in the House of Pioneers of the Moskovsky district of Leningrad, then in the City Palace with the wonderful teacher Solomon Davidovich Levin. He was an outstanding teacher, passionate about art, who loved teenagers and influenced their destinies. Many of his students later became successful professional artists, art historians, and teachers. In 1960 She continued her studies in the creative field, moving from the ordinary school of the Moscow district to the art class of school No. 190 on Fontanka, which was organized at the LVHPU named after V. I. Mukhina. After successfully graduating from school, Olga joined the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass.

"The years from 1962 to 1967 were a happy period of student life. The school captured her with its amazing atmosphere, saturated with art and creativity. Student life took place in classically decorated interiors" ^{[1, p. 394]}, in the library with its huge collection of books about art. In the museum of the school, the curator and teacher Eleonora Dorofeevna Nesterova ^[2] conducted practical classes with 1st year students, showing unique examples of decorative art. Communication with outstanding professors of the department – Vladimir Fedorovich Markov ^[3], Vladimir Sergeevich Vasilkovsky, Fyodor Semenovich Entelis and Anatoly Mikhailovich Miklashevsky, who became Olga's ideals in the idea of figures of higher art education. The students were taught practical skills by the training masters Susanna Sergeevna Pervaya and Alexander Sergeevich Julya. Upon graduation, for defense, she created a set of glass cookware and a set of decorative earthenware tiles, receiving a diploma of an artist of decorative and applied arts with a professional specialization – an artist in artistic ceramics and glass.  

Figure 2. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva on the diploma defense. A set of glass cookware and a set of decorative earthenware tiles. 1976

O. L. Nekrasov-Karateeva began her creative career in the Experimental Workshop of the Combine of Decorative and Applied Arts (KDPI) of the USSR Art Fund, where she created ceramic works for both mass production and unique works designed to decorate the interiors of public institutions such as theaters, hotels, palaces of culture, rest homes, research institutes, sanatoriums and others . She demonstrated her ceramic compositions at various city, republican and All-Union exhibitions.

In 1974, she was accepted as a member of the Union of Artists. 

Figure 3. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva at the IV Congress of Artists of the RSFSR, 1976, Moscow

For 10 years, from 1977 to 1986, together with ceramic artists from among the students of the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass of the LVHPU named after V. I. Mukhina, Olga Leonidovna actively participated in the exhibitions "One Composition" in the Blue Living Room of the Union of Artists.

The artist expressed her creative credo as follows: "Imaginative content, intelligence, lyricism, originality of compositional solutions. I work on plastic forms (vessels, sculpture, reliefs) and with various ways of decorating ceramics (textures, underglaze and overglaze painting, glazes). Favorite themes of creativity: theater, St. Petersburg, motherhood, nature, art" ^{[4, p. 281]}. These are mainly: large decorative dishes with painted glazes (series of still lifes and landscape compositions) or with relief decor (triptych "Summer Garden" (1970), "Moonlit Night in the City" (1972) and others); ceramic reliefs: "Calla Lilies" (1967), "Jug with a Rose" (1969); multi-part composition "Photo Portraits" (1982), sculptural 3-figure group "Harlequinade" ("Pierrot", "Harlequin" and "Columbine") (1979), plastic composition of ceramic layers "Silhouettes" ("At Chekhov's dacha in Melikhovo") (1980), voluminous- spatial composition "Landscape" (1981); composition "Self-portrait in a wheel" (1983). A special compositional program is distinguished by a group of sculptures from ceramic layers "Theater" ("Hero", "Heroine", "Musician", "Chaperone", "Poet") (1984), and a composition also from ceramic layers "Blue Circus" (1980); ceramic "Birds" soaring in the exhibition space (1986). The composition of 7 vessels "Variations" (1985) is interestingly constructed, where the pottery forms were created of the same height, but with different, mutually composing profiles and painted in black on white enamel with scenes from the summer life of children, like the author's own memories and other works. 

Figure 4. Ceramics "One composition" by O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva.

The ceramic compositions created by Olga Leonidovna have always attracted the attention of the audience and received positive reviews from critics. Art critic K. F. Sofyina highly appreciated her artistic work, presented at the joint exhibition of two artists "Malevskaya-Malevich Glass and Nekrasova-Karateeva ceramics", held in 1987 at the Elaginoostrovsky Palace Museum: "Nekrasova-Karateeva is an artist for whom creativity is unthinkable without constant experiment, and at the same time it is a very integral the artist. <...> Each new work is in some way contrasting with the previous one - either with the material, or with the technique, or with the size. The artist resolutely refuses proven techniques if they do not meet the realization of the creative idea" ^{[5, p. 260]}. 

Figure 5. Ceramic compositions by O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva.

Later, compositions were created: "Salute, Moscow!" - a vase in the shape of a temple dome with a bouquet of ceramic openwork fireworks, dedicated to the 850th anniversary of Moscow (1997). 

Figure 6. "Salute, Moscow". (1997). Ceramic compositions

"While the candle is burning..." a composition consisting of a vase with ceramic flowers placed under a glass and metal showcase with sandblasted frost patterns (1998).

Figure 7. "While the candle is burning...". (1998). Glass, ceramics, metal

The series "Portraits of the cactus family" - (1997) and others. 

Figure 8. The series "Portraits of the cactus family". (1997). Ceramics

Creative works are located in the Elaginoostrovsky Palace Museum, in the interiors of public buildings (theaters, cultural centers, hotels (Karelia),

Drawing. 9. A set of decorative items "Empire" for floor buffets of the Karelia hotel. (1983). Ceramics 

research institutes, boarding houses) and in private collections. Olga Leonidovna's artistic works show an individual author's style, commitment to the cultural traditions of St. Petersburg and Russian cities (Yoshkar-Ola, Nefteyugansk, Tver and others).

Simultaneously with the experience of creating creative works, she carried out pedagogical and teaching activities.

Pedagogical experience and teaching methods of Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva

Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva is a teacher with extensive experience and author's teaching methods. Her teaching path is filled with creativity, innovation and the desire for the development of each student. She developed an algorithm of criteria for evaluating children's works and scientifically substantiated the interpretation of the artistic text of children's drawings, concretized the age periodization of children's drawing creativity.

While still a 4th year student, Olga began working at the children's art studio "We Draw in the Hermitage" in 1964 and led it for 12 years.

Figure 10. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva. A lesson in the Hermitage. 1980

Her organizational skills and creative approach have made the museum and its collections a source of inspiration for young children and the basis of their knowledge about world art, history and culture. She received support from prominent Hermitage staff, including director Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky, head of the school office Lyubov Vladimirovna Antonova and head of the economic part of the museum Olga Nikolaevna Bogdanova, whom Joseph Abgarovich Orbeli (former director of the Hermitage from 1934 to 1951) called "The Little Mistress of a big house". O. N. Bogdanova always reliably supported the young the teacher in all her creative and pedagogical endeavors: organizing exhibitions of children's drawings in the Rastrelli Gallery or in the Foyer of the Hermitage Theater, holding children's New Year masquerades in the halls of the Hermitage, organizing bus trips to the suburbs and the Golden Ring, updating equipment (easels, high chairs, paint stands and water cups) and other things. 

Figure 11. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva. On sketches with Hermitage children. 1978

Olga Leonidovna built her methodology of pedagogical guidance for small Hermitage pupils based on the precepts of her teacher S. D. Levin, which he himself invariably followed and summarized in the fundamental work "Your Child draws" (1980). "This book turned out to be very useful for parents, educators, teachers – for everyone who loves children, strives to understand the complex and subtle world of childhood, to help children live and create interestingly. <...> In children's drawings, along with the common features common to all children of the same age, the personal features of their authors, reflecting temperament, innate inclinations, inclinations, and features of their characters. It is the individuality of children that provides the basis for an endless variety of drawings" ^{[6, p. 7]}.

In the course of her own teaching practice, she defined the following principles for herself: 1. each child should be respected, loved, understood, and helped as far as problems are relevant to him; 2. build classes with children taking into account their personal abilities and psychological characteristics; 3. not teach children common pictorial techniques, but develop their personal creative, searching abilities for expressive drawing; 4. be a defender the creative rights of children and the propagandist of children's creativity. 

Initially, Olga Leonidovna decided and followed the rule taken as a basis that drawing classes with young children in the museum should be based on the material of works of art from the Hermitage collections, on revealing their subjects (historical, biblical, epic, realistic), on changing visits to expositions in halls and drawing classes in the studio; methods of communication with the studio they should be sincerely respectful, not flirting with children, but interested in stories about artists, their works and destinies; develop children on the best examples of world classical and modern art. The children tried to express everything they had learned and understood on paper. Since then, exhibitions of children's drawings by museum studios "We draw in the Hermitage" have become annual, significantly differing in content and artistic quality from citywide ones. The opening of the exhibitions "We draw in the Hermitage" became notable solemn events in the city.

In 1977, V. F. Markov, head of the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass of the LVHPU named after V. I. Mukhina, invited O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva to teach at the department. He instructed her to teach the initial course on the basics of composition in the 1st year and composition in the material in the 4th year. Among her first students were Olga and Alexander Florensky, Igor Kharchenko, Nikolai Polissky, Tatyana Novoselova (1st year), as well as Ekaterina Ominina, Olga Muntyan, Nikolai Perederiy, Vera Noskova (4th year), who later became successful and widely known artists.

Having started teaching students, Olga Leonidovna continued to independently study the methodology and culture of educating young artists from her teachers. She was close to the educational concept of the school, which she learned during her studies at the department: this technique was based on the study of traditions and achievements of world and domestic art, including the development of modern artistic and technological practices and the search for innovative approaches in the author's work. "Education based on the foundation of knowledge of the history of art, with the functional logic of constructive construction of the educational process, with the necessary material and technological equipment and the main aesthetic idea of special education and upbringing of the artist of decorative and applied arts" ^{[3, p. 37]}.

She followed the basic principles of teaching at the department, which shaped future applied artists, while adapting them to the new demands of the time. She developed the discipline for the 1st year "Elementary fundamentals of visual graphic language for special decorative composition" as an introduction to the specifics of visual language in the works of ceramic, porcelain and glass artists. At that time, the Department of Ceramics and Glass needed its own initial professional course in special composition.

Based on the study of classical samples of Italian majolica, she developed a composition program in the material for 4th year students, emphasizing that the purpose of educational copying is not only to reproduce external forms and characteristic decors, but also to comprehend all aspects of the creative process: technological methods, stylistic features and compositional principles of the great masters of the Renaissance. The use of educational copying was considered as an effective approach to the development of artistic traditions and the formation of professional skills among future applied artists. "Unlike purely craft schools, the method of copying at the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass of the SPGHPA is based on an analytical principle. Students' attention is drawn not to the mechanical, passive repetition of the object and its decor, but to the essence of what the work was created for and by what means. The student is immersed in the atmosphere of creative tasks that the ancient author faced. At the same time, he is aware of the compositional and structural principle that generates the work, a complex of meanings and connections that form an artistically expressive whole" ^{[7, p. 266]}.

         The final stage of the course included the creation of a unique multi-figure composition and a small self-portrait made in the technique of underglaze painting on raw enamel. Thanks to this technique, the department has formed an extensive and unique collection of self-portraits of students over a long period of time. Exhibitions such as "Student Self-portraits" and "Artistic Copies" have been repeatedly held in the halls of the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts, which have received high marks from visitors.

         In 1994, after 17 years of work at the college, Olga Leonidovna was elected to the position of head of the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass, which she headed until 2001. This period was characterized by significant difficulties in both the financial and ideological aspects of higher education. There were problems: with financing, with a shortage of materials for training, ceramic stoves often failed, heating was absent even in the cold winter months, the equipment was outdated, and the premises had long been in need of repair.

Nevertheless, Olga Leonidovna actively sought opportunities for the full implementation of the educational process at the department, the support of the teaching staff and the motivation of students. Thanks to her initiative and the joint efforts of masters, teachers and students, the department's workshops and classrooms were reconstructed, and an exhibition White Hall was created in one of the renovated classrooms. This event had a significant impact on stimulating the creative activity of the members of the department and ensuring that training sessions were held in an atmosphere of creative exhibitions. Periodic expositions of the works of graduates and young teachers, as well as materials from student summer practices have become the methodological foundation of the department. The White Exhibition Hall continues to function actively.

As head of the department, she attached great importance to the organization of production practices at porcelain, ceramic and glass enterprises of the country, as well as educational summer practices in the suburbs of Leningrad (Peterhof, Oranienbaum, Tsarskoye Selo, Gatchina, Pavlovsk), where students painted in parks and visited palaces-museums, getting acquainted with the richest collections of fine and decorative art- applied arts. She understood the importance of these practices in preparing students for the professional life of artists in their practical competencies and in cultural development.

Her trips with students to Lviv, Vilnius, Tallinn, Kaunas and acquaintance with art universities there, as well as to Dzintari (to the creative base of the USSR Art Fund), where students could see professional artists in the process of working in creative groups, greatly enlivened student life.

At the initiative of Olga Leonidovna, teachers and masters were invited to the department or left after graduation: F. R. Akhmetzyanov, V. P. Gusarov, S. E. Sukharev, D. A. Ilyinsky, M. Y. Kapustin, S. K. Rusakov, I. V. Vasiliev, O. V. Dolzhenkova, V. V. Svetlova, who ensured the continuity of the senior's attitudes and ideals generations of teachers gave a new creative impulse to the life of the department ^{[1, p. 398]}.

Under the leadership of Olga Leonidovna, recent graduates and young teachers of the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass joined together in a creative group called "Crater". They actively participated in exhibitions and ceramic symposia, constantly presenting their work at the educational Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts: "The beginning" (exhibition based on the results of the I winter International Symposium on ceramics in the workshops of the department – 1996), "To be continued ..." (exhibition of works by participants of the II symposium – 1997), "Boomerang. Return" (group exhibition of graduates of ceramists - 1998), "Meeting" (1999). This exhibition symbolized the meeting of ceramists of two generations: actively working, who became famous artists with a worldwide reputation (V. S. Vasilkovsky, A. E. Zadorin, V. N. Gorislavtsev, M. A. Kopylkov, O.L. Nekrasova-Karateeva N. G. Savinova, V. A. Tsivin) and graduates of the 1980s and 1990s (L. Bogatko, A. Gladky, Yu. Gusarova, D. Ilyinsky, K. Kopylkov, M. Kapustin, S. Sorinsky, E. Sukhareva, S. Sukharev, Yu. Repina, V. Shvetsov). Olga Leonidovna herself was the initiator and participant of all these symposiums and exhibitions ^{[8, p. 81]}.

Under her leadership, the creative atmosphere created at the department contributed to the students' activity in academic and artistic development, which was reflected in the high quality of their term papers and theses. The teaching activity of O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva played a key role in the preservation and development of professional education of artists of decorative and applied arts at LVHPU-SPGHPA. She managed to create a unified team of like-minded teachers who are able to preserve and develop the traditions of the department, meeting modern requirements.

Thanks to her life wisdom and rich experience in the field of art and education, as well as continued cooperation with teachers from schools and children's art studios (O. L. has been chairman of the Council for Children's Artistic Creativity at the St. Petersburg Union of Artists for 30 years), she was invited to the A. I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University. In 2000, she was asked to create a department of decorative and applied arts to train future school teachers. For two years, Olga Leonidovna taught at two universities in parallel – at the A. L. Stiglitz SPGHPA and at the A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University.

From 2002 to 2020 She headed the newly created Department of Decorative and Applied Arts at Herzen University. To form the teaching staff, she invited graduates -"Mukhintsev" who already had experience teaching with children – ceramists, textile workers, designers. The uniqueness of the new department was that it was the first place where students – future teachers - were trained to work with various materials in the field of decorative and applied arts ^{[1, p. 399]}. The concept of the department, developed by Olga Leonidovna, sets the main goal not so much to educate professional artists, but to train teachers who are ready to work with children and have a high professional level in the field of decorative and applied arts. Here, special attention is paid to the methods and principles of teaching art, the history and theory of decorative and applied art, special composition in decorative art and practical work with different materials and in different techniques, as well as the theory and practice of design.

For her services to education, Olga Leonidovna was awarded a certificate of honor from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in 2007, gratitude from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in 2012, the badge of distinction "Teacher-Artist of the Year" for her contribution to the development of the art education system and support for children's creativity in 2016, the medal "Empress Maria Feodorovna" 2017 In 2023, he received the medal of the International Union of Art Teachers "For his contribution to the development of humanity."

The professional activities of the students of this department are already well known and contribute to the overall improvement of the level of art education and children's creativity in St. Petersburg. Olga Leonidovna's creative and teaching experience became the object of her scientific reflections and publications.

Scientific activity of Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva

Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva, an artist and teacher, is characterized by an analytical and critical attitude to the results of her own activities. Thinking over art training programs, she analyzed methods, techniques, educational and production processes, compared them with modern scientific developments and wrote articles on these topics, discussed them at scientific and practical conferences.

Publications – more than 130 articles in various peer-reviewed publications. One of the first scientific articles was devoted to the creative development of children of preschool and primary school age in art circles at the State Hermitage Museum (1973); understanding the educational conditions of creative education of children in art, historical and local history museums (1975 - 1980) and analysis of the psychological characteristics of the perception of the picture by the viewer-child in the museum (in collaboration with M. V. Osorina 1983 - 1988).

The result of a serious scientific analysis of his own pedagogical experience of many years of practice in the management of the children's art studio at the State Hermitage Museum was the writing and defense (in 1987) in Moscow, at the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences, of a PhD thesis on "Pedagogical conditions for the artistic education of young children in the art studio at the museum", and she was awarded the scientific degree of candidate of Pedagogical Sciences ^[9].

Her experience of studying the drawing activity of monkeys from 1985 to 1998 turned out to be interesting. At the invitation of Professor L. A. Firsov, an employee of the I. P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who attended her classes with children in the Hermitage art Studio, she agreed to join his scientific laboratory studies of the drawing activities of monkeys (orangutans and chimpanzees) in the anthropoid clinic in Koltushi. The obvious love of these primates for drawing activities and scientific observation of this in the laboratory drew her attention to the graphic patterns and preferences in their drawings. "This was our first experience, devoid of artistic content, in the subsequent years of our cooperation with O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva, she transformed it into a set of tests that allowed not only to competently give them to monkeys, and then to children 2-4 years old, but also to carry out statistical processing of the results obtained" ^{[10, p. 172]}. And further: "Using these tests, it was found that in addition to the color preference, chimpanzees (17 individuals of different ages and sexes) were inclined to choose objects or their images by shape (mostly round), size (mostly large), quantity (mostly large), composition (the original label is the "center of attraction" for activities of monkeys)" ^{[10, pp. 172-173]}. 

Figure 12. Drawings of Boy the chimpanzee (1975) and Monica the orangutan (1995)

Based on the experience of these studies, together with L. A. Firsov, O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva was able to determine the psychophysiological foundations of graphic language before switching to pictorial drawing. This experience allowed her to correctly assess the significance of the observed period of early childhood "doodles".

The topics of further research expanded the problems: on the nature of exhibitions of children's artistic creativity (1993), the development of children's creative abilities in ceramics classes (1994), on the culture of understanding, support and development of children's creativity by adults (1999), on ensuring and protecting children's copyright (2002), on how to watch and see children's drawings (2003).

The analysis of the huge collection of children's drawings of all age categories collected by O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva, presented in her doctoral dissertation "Children's Drawing: a comprehensive art history study" (2006), showed the psychological and personal significance of the first imaginative "doodles" in the development of graphic visual language by a person. She investigated the features of a child's doodle drawing as a result of his movements, the trace of which "stores information about their orientation, strength and rhythm", "expresses the character, temperament, mood of the child", "the kid masters the space of the drawing in the parameters of a sheet of paper", feels the effectiveness of his creativity. Observations of children and monkeys drawing, as well as a comparative analysis of drawings of monkeys and children (1-3 years) showed their formal and expressive similarity ^{[10, p.172]}.

Based on the experience of these psychophysiological and art history studies of the basics of graphic language, O.L. Nekrasova-Karateeva was able to build a system of educational discipline for students – "Elementary foundations of decorative composition" first at the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass of LVHPU/SPGHPA, then in the course "Special composition in DPI" (RSPU. Institute of Art Education).

The fundamental research base became the problems studied by Olga Leonidovna: "New problems of art education at the turn of the century" (1999), "Is it possible to create at a university?" (1988), "What can we do? The concerns of a teacher-artist" (1990), "Museum and Department. On the issue of interaction" (1997), "Problems in working with applicants and the principles of their preparation in composition" (2000), "Analytical copying as a method of creative mastering of decorative and applied arts" (2002), "Problems of specialized training of a teacher of decorative and applied arts in a pedagogical university" (2004). These scientific works are of great methodological importance in higher artistic professional education.

Long–term professional communication with Boris Andreevich Stolyarov, head of the Russian Center for Museum Pedagogy and Children's Creativity at the Russian Museum, contributed to Olga Leonidovna's scientific and publishing activities.  With his assistance and guidance, she wrote and published books: "Children's creativity in the Museum: A textbook." (Education through art). 2005 ^[11]. "This amazing world of subjects: the educational program "The Path to fine art": a textbook" ^[12]. "Learning to sculpt: an assistant book" ^[13].

Publications in various publications, among which there are materials included in collective monographs. Thus, the section "Subject creativity of children (pedagogical aspect)" is included in the collective monograph "Subject forms in the cultural system" under the scientific editorship of Professor M. A. Koskov ^{[14, pp. 159-177]}.

The sections "This mysterious DPI" ^{[15, pp. 565-611]} and "How to look and see children's drawings" ^{[15, pp. 612-650]} are included in the collective textbook for students "Analysis and interpretation of a work of art. Artistic co-creation" ^[15].

Being a specialist in decorative and applied arts and in the pedagogy of art, she supervised the classes and scientific activities of graduate students. Under her leadership, 15 people have prepared and successfully defended their dissertations (8 of them are Russian, 5 from China (PRC), 1 from Afghanistan, 1 from the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

The main scientific works of graduate students who defended themselves under her scientific supervision were devoted to research in the field of decorative and applied arts of various types:

• ceramics, porcelain, textiles, costume, poster – 10 defenses: (Elkhom Mahbuba Maksudi (Afghanistan): "The traditions of ornamentation in modern ceramics of Afghanistan" (1992); Larisa Petrovna Barutkina: "Artistic features of Alan ceramics of the Early Middle Ages: origins and heritage" (2006); Lu Jiechan (China): "Compositional features of painting on Chinese porcelain" (2008); Liu Jian (PRC): "Font art poster: traditions and modernity" (2008); Ping Pingfan (PRC): "Artistic interpretation of traditional Chinese painting in the decorative decoration of the interiors of suburban palaces of St. Petersburg" (2009); Gusarova Julia Vasilyevna: "Leningrad ceramics as a phenomenon of domestic art of the second half of the XX century" (2011); Marina Gennadievna Okolovich: "The art of polychrome relief tiles of Veliky Novgorod and its environs of the XVII-XVIII centuries" (2011); Julia Sergeevna Andreiko: "Artistic traditions of the national costume of the Buryats in the works of modern fashion designers" (2011); Huang Wan (China): "Porcelain with multicolored underglaze painting of the city of Lilin (China)" (2018); Ekaterina Viktorovna Lyakhovich: "Features of reception and interpretation of Chinese porcelain in the European Chinoiserie (2022);
• on the specifics of the interpretation and exhibition of DPI – 2 works of protection: (Toropova Elena Olegovna: "Exhibition of works of decorative and applied art: the history and specifics of the exhibition" (2003); Chen Wenhua (PRC): "Exhibitions of Russian painting in China: History and modernity" (2008);
• according to the principles of art education – 2 defenses: (Veksler Anna Kirillovna: "Collage in the system of professional training of an artist-teacher" (2011); Fomina Svetlana Igorevna: "Formation and use of the information and educational environment in the conditions of university training of an artist-teacher" (2011);
• on the problems of media art – 1 defense: (Cho Hyun Kyung (Republic of Korea): "Artistic and expressive features of media art in South Korea" (2015).

All her former graduate students continue their scientific activities and teach at various universities around the world.

The art historical analysis of the phenomenon of children's drawing served as the basis for the writing of O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva's doctoral dissertation: "Children's drawing: a comprehensive art history study", which she defended in 2006 and was awarded the scientific degree of Doctor of Art History ^[16].

Her approach to the study of the phenomenon of children's drawing was based on the teachings of the philosopher M. S. Kagan, who gave the definition of "theoretical art criticism", when the subject of study is "not individual unique works and not their historically unfolding "chains", but those common stable, invariant qualities and patterns that connect many specific works from within – speech we are talking about the specific structural features of each type of art, each kind and genre, about the features of the content and form in this field of art, about its visual and expressive language, etc., etc." ^{[17, p. 123]}.

In her dissertation, she considered various aspects of children's drawing as a cultural and historical phenomenon from the positions of: phenomenology, axiology, social culturology, child psychology, pedagogy, art criticism; studied and described the language and features of semantics, figurative expressiveness of children's drawing; proposed age periodization of children's artistic creativity based on understanding the problems of adequacy to the processes of personal development of a child-The essential aspects of the art criticism interpretation of children's drawings are considered. The conclusion is made: "Children's creativity is a special kind of fine art, which has its own principles and methods of visual and creative activity, content, species–defining properties and specific qualities" ^{[16, p. 50]}.

For her scientific and pedagogical activity, she was awarded the academic title of professor (1995) and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1998).

In addition to scientific insights in the field of children's and student creativity, Olga Leonidovna has published a number of articles on church sewing in the decorations of Christian churches and on the work of outstanding church embroiderers (two of them "Modern Church sewing as a phenomenon of Russian Art" (2019), "Embroidered icons by V. B. Kazarina: a feat of faith and labor" (2020). Articles on theater and porcelain: "Cartoons of brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat: an experience of interpretation" (2015), "Anna Pavlova – a model" (2017), "Firebird". Reading memoirs (2021), "Memoirs of two Knights of Ballet" (2020), "The Three Hundred Years of glory of Mason porcelain" (2010), "The outstanding collector Bernhard von Barsevisch and his collection of porcelain" (2011) and "The contribution of foreign masters to the creation of Russian Imperial porcelain" (2015). The topics of these articles cover a wide range of relevant cultural phenomena.

A special scientific section is a series of publications dedicated to Olga Leonidovna's students: "The Petersburg Duo" - Tatyana Novoselova, Vyacheslav Shvetsov (2015), "Philosophical reminiscences in the work of the artist Mikhail Kapustin" (2023), "Art master Julia Gusarova - an artist of multifaceted talent" (2023) and others. This is the teacher's understanding of the creative author's path of pupils – established professional artists.

From 2016 to 2022 Olga Leonidovna was the Chairman of the joint Dissertation Council for the defense of Candidate's and doctoral dissertations on the basis of the A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University and the I. E. Repin Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in the scientific specialty 17.00.04 – fine, decorative and applied arts and architecture. During this period, 103 applicants defended their scientific candidate's and doctoral dissertations in this council.

For lectures delivered in China in 2018 on Russian art education and the peculiarities of Leningrad art ceramics, she was awarded the titles of Honorary Professor of Jianxi Pedagogical University and Honorary Professor of Jingdezhen University of Ceramics.

A long period of Olga Leonidovna's scientific life is devoted to the study of the specifics of Chinese art: "The mutual influence of Chinese and Russian art – a space for scientific research" (2005), "Chinoiserie – dialogue of cultures. On the problem of studying the phenomenon" (2010), "Methodological approaches to the study of iconography of images of Chinese mythology" (2022) and others.

Olga Leonidovna's scientific work includes the study of all problems related to the artistic and creative development of children and youth, as well as artistic pedagogy, culture and art. The theoretical and practical works of Nekrasova-Karateeva are a valuable contribution to Russian science and art education. As a teacher, teacher and researcher, she conducts extensive public education activities.

Public education activities of Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva

She always wanted to share with others what she knows or has just learned from the field of art.

While still a student, she joined the All-Union educational society "Knowledge" and in the 1980s and 90s. She gave lectures on art in libraries, hospitals, sanatoriums, rest homes. She especially loved to talk about stained glass windows, the history of glassmaking and porcelain (Chinese, European, Russian), showed glass slides and illustrations through projection lanterns. She was burning with the idea of educating the broad masses of people, saw and noted with satisfaction the interest and joyful enlightenment of the listeners.

She also carried out educational activities in classes with kindergarten teachers on behalf of her and psychologist Maria Osorina from S. D. Levin. The purpose of these meetings was the desire to help educators see and understand their creative merits in children's drawings, to feel in their pupils young artists capable of development not on the basis of repetition of recommended exemplary pictures, but on the basis of children's imagination and desire to draw.

In 1974, she received an offer from the Children's Editorial Office of Leningrad Television to organize and participate in the series of programs "Let's Draw!", where she conducted open drawing classes with a group of Hermitage children in a TV studio. After completing a series of these programs, she received an offer from the Youth Editorial Board of Leningrad TV to join the jury of competitive programs in the form of intellectual tournaments for high school teams from schools in the city – the "Tournament of SK". She has trained and acted as an expert in topics related to architecture and fine arts. The expert commission consisted of: Chairman – People's Artist Igor Vladimirov, members of the jury: Valery Voskoboynikov – travel writer, author of the series of books "The Life of wonderful Children"; composer Andrey Petrov; permanent presenter of technical competitions Eduard Katashkov; literary critic Alexandra Purceladze; restorer from the Hermitage Alexey Vyacheslavovich Bryantsev; artist-teacher Olga Nekrasova- Karateeva; musicologist Vladimir Frumkin. These were entertaining, educational, competitive, competitive programs for high school students in the open air. To this day, meetings are held among former participants of these contests with emotional memories of tournaments as the most interesting moments in their young lives.

Through her activities as a member of the Commission on Aesthetic Education at the Union of Artists of the USSR, Olga Leonidovna took an active part in the development of the educational program "Fine Arts" in fine arts for secondary schools under the guidance of the painter, graphic artist, teacher, People's Artist of Russia Boris Mikhailovich Nemensky. He published a whole series of educational books for school teachers, parents, and youth, but the book "Pedagogy of Art" became the most complete one that included his reflections of an artist-teacher. To see, to know and to create: a book for teachers of educational institutions" ^[18].

B. M. Nemensky, addressing teachers and education officials, repeated about the role of art for the education and upbringing of schoolchildren: "Art introduces us to the vast human experience of searching for moral values, to finds, to mistakes (often wild and tragic) to the variability of these searches from century to century, from people to people, from one a public group to another. Art does not humanize by edification, it does not provide a recipe for correct behavior. It opens the way to mastering the vast, centuries-old human experience of delight and contempt, love and hate to form their own experience of relationships, searching for today's purely personal criteria of moral and immoral. Purely personal.... The whole society" ^{[18, p. 51]}. Boris Mikhailovich headed the International Union of Art Teachers established in Moscow, in the field of which constant interaction with Olga Leonidovna is carried out.

In the dashing 1990s, the country experienced a crisis, default, social conditions were scrapped, all the good things that had been created for years under Soviet rule were destroyed, there was a stratification of society, financial and human losses. The standard of living fell sharply, there was a shortage of food and goods, prices changed and the welfare of citizens deteriorated.

In 1990, S. D. Levin died, who was for many Leningrad art teachers a professional leader, a wise adviser, and an organizing center at the A. A. Zhdanov Palace of Pioneers. Many teachers were confused, as were all the methodological and pedagogical leadership of the city.

The situation was not bad with teachers of general educational disciplines (Russian, mathematics, physics, history, etc.) in schools, but school drawing teachers (ISO) had reduced hours and rates, so they had to look for additional work and barely made ends meet. In the system of additional education, the heads of clubs and studios were particularly affected: new standards for filling groups in studios were introduced; at the same time, salaries for teachers were lowered; children's and youth clubs, art studios in district Homes of pioneers and schoolchildren were reduced and closed. In some places, they began to introduce tuition fees for children, but parents could not afford it. In addition, the equipment of classes with paints and drawing tools has been reduced. It became increasingly difficult to develop children's creative abilities and desires. The problem of child homelessness has become relevant again, teenagers are used to spending all their free time on the street, in bad companies. A period of devastation and great disappointment has come.

One event of that time (the opening of the exhibition of drawings by children of Armenia at the House of Friendship of Peoples in 1993 and its discussion) aroused a strong desire among the Leningrad teachers gathered there to rally in support of each other. At the suggestion of Olga Leonidovna, the art teachers decided to create a special Independent information and Coordination Council (NICS) for children's artistic creativity. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva was elected Chairman of such a Council.

The base of the Council could be the Leningrad organization of the Union of Artists of the RSFSR (LOSH). Olga Leonidovna made this decision for discussion at a meeting of the LOSH Board and received unanimous consent from all members of the Board, as well as support from the Chairman – E. D. Maltsev and the head of the Exhibition Center – A. V. Saikov (Decision of the LOSH Board dated May 5, 1993).

Since then, the Leningrad KNICKS for Children's Creativity has annually organized citywide exhibitions and contests of children's art in the halls of the CX with the grand opening and greeting of the now current Chairman of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists, A. N. Bazanov.

For 30 years, Olga Leonidovna continues to lead the activities of the Council, conducts regional seminars for teachers of additional education, is the chairman of the jury of city, all-Russian and international exhibitions and competitions of children's artistic creativity, takes an active part in helping novice art teachers, protects children's rights to individual creativity of a child.

NICS members widely share their experience by participating in seminars for teachers, conferences and publishing articles in scientific and popular publications, organizing radio broadcasts for children on art issues, reviewing educational programs on art.

Remaining a public organization, without having a state (official) status, the Independent Information and Coordination Council for Children's Artistic Creativity at the St. Petersburg Union of Artists managed to gain professional and personal authority in the city, becoming an informal school of pedagogical excellence in art education.

The experience of the St. Petersburg Information and Coordination Council was taken into account when organizing the International Union of Art Teachers in Moscow in 2013, where O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva co-founded and then became the head of the regional branch of the International Union of Art Teachers in St. Petersburg, which is now based at the Institute of Art Education of the Russian State Pedagogical University. I. Herzen. Olga Leonidovna is a regular participant in educational, scientific and practical conferences on aesthetic education and art education of children and youth. 

Figure 13. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva with drawings of children. 2015

Considering the outcome of Olga Leonidovna's public activities, it becomes obvious her broad educational significance in the cultural life of the city.

Conclusion

The study of Olga Leonidovna's work as a ceramic artist showed the originality, aestheticism and great figurative expressiveness of her works. The main content of the author's works lies in the images of humanistic meaning plastically expressed in ceramics, fascination with nature, love for his hometown of St. Petersburg, for the theater, for the images of poetry. She has a distinct, original style of plastic language and form. The participation of her works in public exhibitions has made her name famous, and the cultural orientation of artistic themes evokes a response in the souls of the audience. O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva's contribution to the artistic decoration of the interiors of public institutions is significant: theaters, palaces and houses of culture, sanatoriums in different cities.

The unique pedagogical experience of art education of preschoolers, schoolchildren, and students described in the article (training of professional artists at the V. I. Mukhina LVHPU and training of art teachers at the A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University) gives an idea of a wide range of methods and approaches to the development of the artistic potential of students of various ages and levels of education. She has developed educational methods for the professional training of future teachers and conducts methodological seminars and consultations with practicing art teachers on professional development.

Olga Leonidovna has not only developed an effective algorithm for evaluating children's creative works, but also scientifically substantiated methods for analyzing the works of young artists. Thanks to her, the age periodization in children's visual art has been clarified, which allows for a deeper understanding and support for the development of children's creative potential. The published monographs and scientific articles are fundamental educational materials in professional cultural and artistic education.

More than 4 thousand pupils – children, students and adults, former pupils and students of the academy, now actively serve art, national culture, art education and science. She is a respected member of the pedagogical, artistic, creative and scientific communities of our country, an active promoter of the value of children's artistic creativity.

In 2023 Olga Leonidovna turned 80 years old. She continues her teaching activities at the Herzen State Pedagogical University and expert work in the dissertation council, as well as educational work in the International Union of Art Teachers.