Textile plot drawings of the 1920s and 1930s: substantive and formal aspects

Ignat'kova Angelina Dmitrievna ORCID: 0009-0001-2573-1286 Postgraduate student; Department of Art History; St. Petersburg State Art and Industrial Academy named after A.L. Stieglitz 191187, Russia, Saint Petersburg, trans. Salt, 13 lookforbes@yandex.ru

Introduction

Currently, there is a great theoretical and practical interest in the art of ornamentation of domestic printed fabrics of the 1920s and 1930s, which is confirmed by major exhibitions in recent years, at which Soviet propaganda fabrics were presented: "Calico Russia" (Moscow, All-Russian Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts, 2010); "Fabrics of Moscow" (Moscow, Museum Moscow, September 2019–February 2020); "Russian avant-garde. Art for a New World" (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, December 2022-March 2023), etc.

In addition, the importance of practical relevance is determined by the influence of avant-garde ideas on the modern artistic experience. An important aspect characterizing the relevance are professional textile design contests for students, which involve a creative rethinking of the ideas of promotional textiles as a competitive task. For example, in the competition "Textile design – the link of times", held by JSC HBK Shuisky Calico since 2021, the theme "Propaganda textiles in a modern interpretation" was set in the nomination "Collection of decorative fabrics". In addition, the modern training program for textile artists at the Department of Artistic Textiles of the A. L. Stieglitz SPGHPA includes practical tasks for the creative rethinking of avant-garde ideas and the creation of modern solutions involving "the processing of compositional schemes and the use of recognizable thematic motifs" ^{[15, p. 142]}.

Evidence of the theoretical relevance of the study of fabric patterns in the 1920s and 1930s is a significant number of modern studies devoted to this topic. The issues of ornamentation of campaign fabrics have been the subject of heated debate since their appearance. Art historians and critics of the early 20th century discussed a lot about new thematic drawings with an agitation orientation, their relevance on fabrics, as well as artistic and stylistic features: A. A. Fedorov-Davydov, F. S. Roginskaya, D. E. Arkin, O. M. Brik, etc.

The issues of the formation of avant-garde trends in the art of fabric ornamentation reflecting the new Soviet ideology, the history of the emergence of propaganda textiles, avant-garde artists and their contribution to the development of textile drawings are considered in the works of domestic researchers of the XX-XXI century: I. M. Yasinskaya ^[22,23], S. M. Temerin ^[17], S. O. Khan-Magomedov ^[21], N. P. Beschastnova, A. N. Lavrentieva ^[5], M. A. Blyumin ^[1], G. A. Kareva ^[1], G. A. Vlasova ^[15], K. Guseva ^[10], Yu. Tulovskaya ^[10] and others. The subject of propaganda drawings is analyzed and described in the works of I. M. Yasinskaya, M. A. Blyumin, G. A. Kareva, G. A. Vlasova, etc. The issues of teaching textile artists in higher educational institutions in the 1920s and 1930s are raised in the works of A. N. Lavrentiev, N. P. Beschastnov.

Of interest is the study of museum collections of propaganda textiles, which is confirmed by the publication of publications, among which one can note the collective monograph "Soviet printed fabrics of the 1920s-1930s. From the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts of the Stieglitz Academy" ^[15], the album "The Russian Revolution of Ornament" from the collection of the Museum of Art Textiles and Costume of the Kosygin Russian State University ^[14], as well as the book "100% Ivanovo: propaganda textiles of the 1920s-1930s from the collection of the Ivanovo State Museum of Local Lore. D. G. Burylina" ^[1].

Among the foreign publications devoted to the study of collections, the book "Soviet Textiles. The Creation of a Modern Utopia" by Pamela Kachurin ^[25], published by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which presents Soviet fabrics and drawings from the private collection of Lloyd Cotsen.

It should be noted that foreign studies of Soviet fabrics, to a large extent, reveal general issues related to the history of propaganda fabrics, their thematic and ideological orientation, and the peculiarities of the graphic language of textile drawing, consonant with the ideas of the avant-garde. Among the foreign works that raise issues of domestic propaganda drawings, the research of Charlotte Douglas, Pamela Kachurin, Emma Widdis and others should be highlighted.

Nevertheless, the abundance of existing literature does not exclude the existence of some issues that require separate consideration. In particular, this applies to the textile drawings of the 1920s and 1930s.

Let us turn to the understanding of the "plot" by N. P. Beschastnov: "a plot in fine art means an event, a situation reflected in a work" ^{[4, p. 6]}. It should be noted that the plot compositions are widely used not only in fine arts, but also in decorative and applied arts, representing one of the types of textile drawing. Plot motifs in the ornamentation of domestic printed fabrics are found from the time of artisanal printing to the present. Their identification in time can be determined not only by the subject of the plot, but also by artistic and stylistic methods of ornamentation, formed, among other things, by technological features of production.

The period of the 1920s and 1930s had a significant impact on the art of fabric ornamentation, which was formed under the influence of artistic trends in the context of historical time, which dictated the actual subject of drawings. During this transitional period, the plot compositions formed an important part in the whole variety of propaganda drawings and had their own meaningful and formal features.

As F. S. notes Roginskaya, "Russian printmaking industries had to keep a close eye on abroad, catch up and match it, and sometimes just borrow drawings from it" ^{[13, p. 22]}. After the revolution, a new approach to fabric ornamentation began to take shape: the "struggle for a new pattern" and the avant-garde experiments of artists changed the approach to the process of developing printed drawings. A huge variety of drawings appear on the textile surface, illuminating a wide range of topics relevant to the life of the new society through the prism of the artist's point of view. Significant socio-cultural and political events were reflected in the thematic plot drawings of printed fabrics produced at the cotton factories of the main textile centers of Russia and became one of the ways to agitate the general population of the country for new ideals of life.

The detailed plot motifs in textile drawings, defined by a specific theme, caused controversy at that time about its relevance on fabrics for various purposes. In the report, D. E. Arkin noted that the fabric itself "is not a finished product, but a kind of semi–finished product for further use, while the painting is a completed work" ^{[2, p. 3]}.The consonance of some plot drawings of fabrics of the 1920s-1930s with types of fine and decorative arts can be traced both thematically (unity of subject matter) and artistically and stylistically, characterized by the unfoldment of the narrative plot, attention to the degree of elaboration of details, etc. With regard to the problem of the formal stylistic solution of the form, it is important to note the absence in some drawings of the stylization of forms characteristic of the ornamental nature of the textile pattern. The excessive detailing of the elements of the drawing and the naturalness of the depicted motifs make the textile drawings of this period related to fine art, far from production. N. M. Tarabukin noted that "in "industrial craftsmanship" the "content" is the utilitarianism and expediency of a thing, its tectonism, which determines its form and design and justifies its social purpose and function" ^{[16, p. 18]}. As a typical example of a realistic interpretation of the plot motif, one can cite the decorative fabric "Industrialization of the village/Tractor" (artist V. Maslov, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1925). Such a narrative pattern was criticized after the first shows at major textile exhibitions in the 1920s.

The change in the plastic laws of the avant-garde period influenced the artistic and stylistic features of the printed pattern and "<...> the result of the experience of avant-garde textile design by Popova and Stepanova will be a completely unique experiment in the field of story-themed textiles", continued by graduates of the textile faculty of VKhUTEMAS (VKhUTEIN) ^{[5, p. 163]}.

It is important to note that the desire for stylization and transformation of a realistic form has turned the picturesque narrative beginning of the plot composition into a construction of an iconic convention. A characteristic feature of some printed drawings was the transmission of a detailed semantic message by means of simple, concise forms. Such an example is the drawing of the pillowcase chintz "Tractor Drivers", executed in one color, it has a significant decorative processing of the visual forms of the plot (artist V. Burylin, Ivanovo Industrial region, 1930).

All this allows us to speak about the transitional nature of the printed fabric plot drawings of the 1920s and 1930s, expressed in the unified interest of textile artists in the new content of drawings with a characteristic duality of the formal solution.

This article attempts to consider the plot drawings of printed fabrics of the 1920s and 1930s from the point of view of their substantive and formal aspects in the context of the transition period.

The subject of the study is the substantive (figurative-thematic) and formal (means of artistic expression) aspects of plot compositions in domestic printed fabrics of the 1920s and 1930s in the context of the transition period. The object of the study are samples of domestic printed fabrics of the 1920s-1930s with plot drawings.

The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the substantive and formal aspects in the plot drawings of domestic printed fabrics of the 1920s and 1930s.

The objectives of the article:

1) analyze the content features of the plot compositions;

2) analyze the formal features of the plot compositions;

3) to identify the variety of artistic approaches in solving common themes related to new subjects.

The research methodology is based on the understanding of the category of "artistic style", which has developed in the Russian philosophy and theory of art (V. P. Bransky, V. G. Vlasov, E. N. Ustyugova), as a certain content-formal integrity, formed in the context of its historical epoch ^{[6, pp. 272-275],[9, pp. 172-186],[19, pp. 132-141]}. The research uses methods of formal stylistic (research of means of artistic expression), iconographic (typology of plot images), cultural and historical (consideration of the features of the embodiment of textile plot drawing in the context of transitional artistic culture - from avant–garde to social realism) analysis.

Substantive aspects of the development of the plot drawing in the 1920s and 1930s.

The plot drawings of propaganda fabrics had their own peculiarities regarding the content aspects, revealing the thematic diversity of the new ideals of Soviet society.

One of the meaningful aspects of the plot drawings were new plots related to the transformation of the country in the post-revolutionary period, among which one can trace:

a) stories related to the industrialization of the country. One of the main priorities of the life of the new Soviet society concerned the accelerated pace of industrialization and the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one, which was reflected in the plot scenes of printed fabrics – textile artists depicted scenes of construction of production buildings, work in workshops, mining, etc. The scene of construction of new production buildings depicting workers building brick walls of workshops is presented in the plot drawing of the pillowcase fabric of the Large Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya manufactory "Stroika" (artist S. P. Burylin, Ivanovo, 1930).The drawing of the fabric "Stroika" also represents a scene of bricklaying by workers, but this time under electric lighting – evidence of the active electrification of the country (artist G. S. Babashev, Krasnaya Talka factory, Ivanovo, 1930). The plot scenes of the extraction of ore necessary for the development of metallurgy are depicted in the drawing of the fabric of the V. Slutskaya factory "Miner", which shows the difficult process of manual ore extraction (artist V. I. Loseva, Leningrad, 1930). The drawing of the cloth "Miners" depicts the plot scene of the transportation of mined ore by miners in wheelbarrows from the mining mine (drawing of the Moscow Drawing Room, Moscow, the First Cotton Factory, 1930).

In addition to the theme of active construction of factories, the plot drawings on fabrics depicted scenes of labor typical of various industries. The drawing of the fabric "Forge" of the V. Slutskaya factory (artist S. M. Buntsis, Leningrad, 1930) is interesting because it presents several plot scenes telling about the metallurgical industry: one of them depicts steelworkers pulling out so-called "slags" from blast furnaces in which ore is melted, and the other He represents a blacksmith who stamps a part from a newly cast steel billet on a machine. Not only heavy industry was actively developing, but also light industry. The plot drawing of the factory named after F. Zinoviev "Textile production" (artist A. G. Golubev, Ivanovo, 1930), which tells about the work of textile workers in production workshops, is devoted to this topic.

However, with the active development of industry, the focus on the development of agriculture did not fade into the background at all, becoming one of the main ones from the point of view of the development of the country's economy.

b) plots revealing the theme of the new village were found not only in fine art, but also in decorative and applied art, repeatedly appearing in ornamental textile compositions. The artist S. P. Burylin in the plot drawing of the fabric "New Village" shows several important themes for the village at the same time – the mechanization of heavy agricultural labor, expressed in the image of tractor drivers harvesting crops; the elimination of illiteracy, shown through the image of the interior of the hut-reading room, where both old and young people read literary works; the relief of women's labor, demonstrated in the scene of the reception of babies from villagers rushing to work by nursery nurses; the bond of the city and the village – through the display of a rushing train; the construction of new buildings in the village – the scene of bricklaying by builders is presented; the introduction of village children to the pioneer movement – the composition of marching pioneers to the sounds of a bugle is depicted (Decorative fabric "New Village", Ivanovo, factory named after The worker F. Zinoviev, 1929).

Of course, the active development of not only industry and agriculture, but also any other industry was impossible without human labor. One of the main principles of the new life of a Soviet citizen was honest work for the benefit of society, which also became the subject of propaganda and appeared in the plot drawings of printed fabrics.

c) subjects representing people of different professions depicted a person in the process of working, showing the importance of socialist labor. The plot scenes in the fabric drawings show people of various professions – builders, steelworkers, turners, blacksmiths, miners, textile workers, agricultural workers, nurses, etc.

Along with the promotion of the new labor ideals of a socialist society, much attention was paid to the role of the army in the Soviet state.

d) in this regard, in the drawings of fabrics there are plots dedicated to the Red Army and Navy. When depicting soldiers of the Red Army, textile artists emphasized the cohesion of the Red Army to a greater extent. Drawing the first warrior in the line in detail, the rest were depicted in the form of a repeatedly repeated outline of the initial figure. This is the plot scene representing the Red Army soldiers going into a bayonet attack (artist E.V. Belevich, cloth "On guard of the country", Leningrad, factory named after V. Slutskaya, 1930). Friendly ranks of soldiers in Budenovka are also imprinted on the fabric "Red Army" (Moscow, the First Cotton Factory, 1930). Artists pay attention to all branches of the Red Army. So, the gunners (gunners) are depicted in a drawing for a fabric created by the artist V. D. Lotonina (Red Army cloth, Moscow, the First Cotton Factory, 1932). The gunner, loader and commander were tightly grouped around the powerful weapon. The gunners are also helped by tracked tanks located near the firearms. Attention not only to the various branches of the armed forces, but also to representatives of the Red Army of the annexed republics can be traced in the plot drawing of the cloth "In a single formation" (artist Z. D. Markina, Ivanovo, Krasnaya Talka factory, 1930), which together depicts the ranks of the Red Army in Budenovka, Red Navy men in capless, and also, judging by according to the characteristic headdresses and clothes, representatives of the Red Army of the Central Asian republics.

Attention was also paid to the Navy. The decorative fabric "Krasnoflottsy" (artist V. D. Lotonina, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Kochomskaya Manufactory, 1932) is interesting because several plots related to the life of sailors are simultaneously presented here. The main one is the "Big gathering" of the team on the upper deck, when the crew and the commander greet the flag raising. There is also a scene of sailors climbing the ladder and descending to the boats. A semaphore operator with signal flags is depicted on a slightly enlarged scale compared to previous episodes. All three scenes are imbued with energy, solidarity, and the joy of serving the Fatherland.

The drawings reflected the theme of mechanization, which affected not only agriculture, but also the Red Army. So the drawing of the decorative fabric "Mechanization of the Red Army" (artist L. Ya. Rayzer, Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1932) presents a story scene depicting Red Army soldiers riding on trucks, armed with rifles, flying planes, and tanks.

The expansion of the borders of the Soviet state was also peaceful, the newly annexed territories were connected to the Russian Empire by railway, in particular, the Turkestan-Siberian Railway (Turksib) was built, connecting the multinational population of a huge country.

e) plots that reveal the theme of the multinational nature of the Soviet state. At the end of the 19th century, the territories of Central Asia were annexed to the Russian Empire, which significantly expanded the sales market for domestic textile products. Of course, it was necessary to take into account the peculiarities of the ornamentation of fabrics and develop drawings understandable to the inhabitants of the area. During the heyday of propaganda textiles, export fabrics also came under ideological influence, which can be traced, among other things, in the plot drawings dedicated to the construction of the Turkestan-Siberian railway, which was of great importance, since its construction "is associated with the development of cotton growing in the USSR" ^{[15, p. 95]}.

Despite the fact that the artistic solution of the theme dedicated to the construction of the railway connecting Turkestan and Siberia could be performed in various ways, decorative artists very often emphasized the most significant meaningful moment – the comparison of the speed of trains on a new track and the slow march of a camel caravan. These contrasting motifs can be observed in the fabric of the Moscow factory named after Y.M. Sverdlov (fabric "Turksib", drawing of the factory drawing room, 1930), and in a sample of the fabric of the Ivanovo factory "Krasnaya Talka" (decorative fabric "Turksib", drawing of the factory drawing room, 1930).In this fabric, the background space between the plot scenes is filled with floral ornaments with cotton flowers, which is not accidental, since Central Asia supplied cotton to Russia by rail.

An equally important component of the life of any Soviet person was sports, which allowed them to keep a healthy mind in a "healthy body"

f) the sports theme in textile drawings of the 1920s and 1930s was vividly embodied in story compositions representing scenes dedicated to various sports: cycling, tennis, water sports, speed skating, etc. The theme of water sports is revealed through various plots with swimmers, kayakers and canoes, water polo games, etc. The theme of rowing is dedicated to the drawing of the swim cloth "Rower" by the artist M. Anufrieva (Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory Combine, 1930-1932), the same theme is devoted to the drawing of the swim cloth "Rowing" (author not known. Shlisselburg, factory named after P. Alekseev, 1930), depicting four athletes in a boat. The plot scene of the fabric factory named after him. The work of F. Zinoviev "Water sports" (artist R. G. Matveeva, Ivanovo, 1930)At the same time, he portrays a rower on a boat, a swimmer and a diving athlete. Interestingly, in the content of the plot scene of this drawing, you can also see a water polo game.

Depicting cycling in textile drawings, the artists focused on the mass character and impetuosity of this sport. The artist D. S. Lehtman-Zaslavskaya in the drawing of the cloth "Bicycle racing" (Moscow, The First Cotton Factory, 1930) depicts rows of racing cyclists.

There are plot drawings dedicated to tennis sports, which, as a rule, depicted an athlete with a tennis racket in his hands, hitting a ball. These are the drawings of decorative fabrics made by the artist M. Anufrieva at the Trekhgornaya Manufactory combine in 1930-1932.

Special attention should be paid to the drawing of the calico "Sport" created by V. I. Maslov, in which the artist simultaneously depicted many plot scenes dedicated to various sports: next to the racing skiers and skaters, a scene of diving from a tower is depicted against the background of a rowing competition scene; nearby are scenes of a bicycle race and a boxing match; here are adjacent scenes of sailing and equestrian sports; badminton players, football players, etc. play nearby (Ivanovo, Ivanovo-Voznesensky State Textile Trust, late 1920-early 1930).

However, the life of a Soviet citizen, in addition to work and sports activities, was also filled with social activities, involving participation in demonstrations, parades and other mass events.

g) plots dedicated to the topic of demonstrations. Demonstrations and rallies, which have become a characteristic feature of the life of the new Soviet society, have become firmly embedded in the public life of people of the post-revolutionary period. In drawings dedicated to this topic, textile artists depicted the mass nature of events, emphasizing the ideological cohesion of the people. Such an example is the drawing of the cloth "Demonstration" (drawing of the factory drawing room, Moscow, the First cotton Factory, 1929), in the story scene of which rows of people are depicted against the background of developing flags with five-pointed stars. Interestingly, the demonstration scene could be found in textile drawings that combine many diverse scenes. For example, in a fabric produced for the 1905 revolution (Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1920-1930), one of the scenes depicts a column of demonstrators with red flags entering the gates of the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin. The fact that not only adults but also children participated in the demonstrations is narrated by the plot drawing of the fabric of the V. Slutskaya factory "Children's Demonstration" (artist Z. V. Belevich, Leningrad, 1930), which depicts a moving truck with children sitting in the back holding flags.

It should be noted that the theme of children and youth as the main heirs of the new socialist country occupied an important place in Soviet society, which can be traced in textile drawings.

h) plots dedicated to the topic of youth and childhood. Textile artists in their story compositions devoted to the theme of youth and childhood emphasized the mass character of the pioneer movement, their vital activity, cohesion and cheerfulness. Pioneers in uniform, playing horns and drums, are depicted by the artist Minervin in a cloth "Gathering of Pioneers" against the background of numerous rows of other pioneers standing shoulder to shoulder with flags in their hands (Moscow, The First Cotton Factory, 1930).The drawing is complemented by red five-pointed stars and airplanes flying through the sky. Just as "the characters of A. Deineka's canvases march", so in the textile drawing "Walking Pioneers" (artist M. Khvostenko, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Kochomskaya Manufactory, circa 1930), pioneers playing the drum walk in friendly rows ^{[10, p. 101]}. The drawing of the cotton print "Pioneers on the ruler" (artist M. S. Nazarevskaya, Ivanovo, factory "Krasnaya Talka", 1930) is devoted to the same topic.

However, despite the abundance of plot drawings on the pioneer theme, textile artists turned to other topics, focusing on the activities and games of children. For example, the artist E. S. Nikitina in the plot drawing of the plaid fabric "Children's Round Dance" (Moscow, The First Cotton Factory, 1928) simultaneously depicts a scene of a children's round dance and a ball game.

Thus, the new subjects that appeared in the fabric drawings of the 1920s and 1930s reflected current topics from the life of the new Soviet society.

Speaking about the substantive aspects of the plot drawings of the 1920s and 1930s, one can note their connection with fine art, characterized by blurring the boundaries between genres. The plot scenes of printed fabric drawings showed the everyday, everyday life of a Soviet citizen, which allows us to trace an analogy with the riot genre scenes. The above-described pattern of S. P. Burylin's decorative fabric "New Village" (Ivanovo, factory named after Rabochy F, Zinoviev, 1929), containing many plot scenes, tells about the daily life of a person in a new society. This is also narrated by the drawing designed by V. I. Maslov for the decorative chintz "Rural Consumer Society" (Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1929).

The plot drawings also show brutal scenes showing the cohesion and determination of the Red Army men. Such an example is the already mentioned plot drawing "The Red Army" (artist V. D. Lotonina, Moscow, the First Cotton Factory, 1930), depicting a dynamic combat situation. It is possible to note the consonance of this battle plot scene created by V. D. Lotonina for the ornamentation of coupon fabric with the battle scene on K. Malevich's painting "The Red Cavalry Gallops". The plot drawing of the cloth "Budyonny's Cavalry" (artist N. S. Demkov, Strunino, Vladimir region, factory "Fifth October", 1930), which also reveals the battle scene, is interesting because, without reference to a specific battle event, it creates an associative feeling of the rapid movement of Budyonny's cavalry army, obviously going on the offensive.

There are drawings where the plot scene is presented with floral motifs close to a still life. The elements of plant forms in such compositions can act only as an ornamental frame (the so-called reserve) or an addition to the plot scenes. As an example of such a plot pattern, one can cite the decorative fabric "Industrialization of the village/Tractor" (Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1925), in which the artist V. Maslov frames the plot scenes with a floral ornament referring to a still life, telling about the difficult peasant labor in the field. The plot scenes illustrating plowing, sowing and harvesting in the field are framed by floral ornaments, including images of leaves, flowers and fruits.

Another example is the printed fabric drawing "Vegetables for collective farm bazaars!" (artist O. V. Bogoslovskaya, textile drawing, 1933), the plot scene in which is complemented by extremely large-scale images of cabbage and beetroot relative to human figures, which come to the fore, while the plot scene itself is a kind of ornamental an addition that sets the semantic load.

In a separate group, you can select plot scenes with the inclusion of a landscape environment. It is interesting to trace the peculiarities of the connection of the human figure with various types of landscape and the transformation of the story scene into a single ornamental cover. Among the main types of landscape environments in the story compositions, rural, urban and industrial can be conditionally distinguished.

Plot drawings illustrating scenes from peasant life, as a rule, unfold against the background of a rural landscape environment. For example, in the drawing of the printed decorative fabric of the Trekhgornaya manufactory "Rural Consumer Society" (artist V. Maslov, Moscow, 1929), subjects from rural life, complemented by views of fields and village courtyards, smoothly flow into one another, depicting scenes of work in the field on a tractor, trading in a store.

Another example of a drawing with the inclusion of a rural landscape is the plot composition of the decorative fabric "New Village" (artist R. E. Vasilyeva, Ivanovo, factory named after F. Zinoviev, 1920-1931), containing attributes characteristic of rural areas: furrows of plowed fields surrounded by ears and other crops grown in the fields.

The other group includes plot scenes with an urban landscape environment. Such an example is the previously mentioned drawing of the fabric of the Trekhgornaya manufactory, released on the anniversary of the 1905 revolution (the author is not known, Moscow, 1920-1930).In a complex plot drawing dedicated to revolutionary events, the figures of people on barricades with a red banner are surrounded by urban architecture. It should be noted that the ornamental covering of the textile pattern includes significant architectural structures, including the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin and the Shukhov Tower. Of interest is how the scenes of the rural and industrial landscape fit into the overall composition of the urban landscape, adding substance to the semantic component of the drawing.

Compositions with the inclusion of an industrial landscape can be distinguished in a separate group of plot drawings. The active development of industry in the 1920s and 1930s was reflected in the plot drawings of fabrics: narrative scenes of industrial buildings, workers against the background of industrial buildings, workers in workshops, etc. This is the drawing of the printed cloth of the Leningrad factory named after V. Slutskaya "Kuznitsa" (artist S. M. Buntsis, Leningrad, 1930), which is a variant of the plot composition with associative elements of the industrial landscape. In the pillowcase calico "Stroika" (artist S. P. Burylin, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1930) and in the fabric "Stroika" (artist G. S. Babasheva, Ivanovo, Krasnaya Talka factory, 1930), silhouettes of workers' figures in the process of work are also depicted by artists against the background of an abstract industrial landscape.

In addition, many of the plot drawings of this period trace the cult of movement and struggle associated with the active position of man, which was considered one of the foundations of rapid changes in the life of a new society and its struggle for new ideals. All this was promoted through the plot drawings of printed fabrics, demonstrating participation in demonstrations and parades, the shock pace of work, the development of TRP standards, the pioneer movement, etc., etc.

Thus, speaking about the substantive aspects of the plot compositions of printed fabrics of the 1920s and 1930s, it should be noted the dominance of plots with modern and relevant themes for that time, which, in turn, promoted the transformation of the country in post-revolutionary times and revealed various aspects of the life of the new society. The themes and images of the plot drawings of fabrics were in harmony with the themes and images in the visual and decorative arts.

Nevertheless, the new content, which attracted textile artists, had a different formal embodiment.

Formal aspects of the development of the plot drawing in the 1920s and 1930s.

Formal features in the perspective of a stylistic solution (avant-garde, realism). The plot drawings of fabrics of the transition period between the avant–garde and socialist realism were characterized by the dual nature of the formal solution - against the background of drawings dedicated to new topics, made in new avant-garde trends, there were drawings dedicated to the same new topics, but made in old traditions. At one time, drawings were produced, the formal stylistic solution of which allowed parallels to be drawn with the realistic stylistics of easel art and poster art, as well as drawings designed with a high degree of formal convention, which allowed literally "encoding" the meaningful beginning of the narrative plot into an ornamental composition. It is noteworthy that the drawings could have different formal and stylistic solutions for both individual pictorial elements of the composition and the rapport system as a whole. In this regard, printed drawings with plot compositions regarding formal aspects can be considered as realistic images (i.e. subject images), as well as conditional images.

Portrait compositions as realistic images, implying the depiction of elements of a textile pattern close to nature, can be correlated with works of easel painting, as well as with the features of poster art. Such drawings are characterized by realistic drawing of elements with characteristic detail of visual elements, as well as a three-dimensional solution with black and white modeling of the shape. It should be noted that such plot drawings with detailed narrative scenes largely followed pre-revolutionary techniques for the design of printed fabrics, although they had distinctive features. For example, the above drawing by V. Maslov "Industrialization of the village/Tractor" (Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1925) is executed with great attention to the smallest details of the drawing with chiaroscuro modeling of visual elements, which allows us to draw the above parallels.

Plot scenes as conventional images represent a separate group of drawings created under the influence of avant-garde ideas and represent the complete opposite of realistic drawings against the background of a single ideological and semantic content inherent in both. Such drawings are characterized by conciseness in the depiction of the plot, which, nevertheless, does not lose depth in its content. It can be noted that the drawings, solved in a similar stylistic way, had a different degree of decorative processing of the form, ranging from stylization close to nature to the most conventional stylization of the form. Narrative textile drawings in an avant-garde manner with a characteristic conventionality of the solution of pictorial elements were most often found in the ornamentation of plaid, shirt, etc. fabrics, rather than decorative ones. An example demonstrating the most conventional interpretation of the form, representing literally an associative impression of the field in the form of a conditional rhythm of ears and furrows along which a tractor rides, depicted in a planar manner, is a drawing of a cloth "Reaper" (drawing of a factory drawing room, Moscow, factory named after Ya. M. Sverdlov, 1930). Interestingly, the approach to the compositional construction of a rapport fabric covering could also change depending on the degree of conditional processing of the elements of the pattern.

Another formal aspect characteristic of some plot drawings is the simultaneous depiction of several scenes in one artistic space – the use of a technique characteristic of fine arts and crafts since the Middle Ages. A similar technique of simultaneous depiction of various plot scenes in one drawing is used in the composition of the already mentioned fabric of the Trekhgornaya Manufactory, released on the anniversary of the 1905 revolution (the author is not known, Moscow, 1920-1930), where the plot scenes are located next to each other, without distinction, which creates a feeling of the immediacy of everything that is happening.It should be noted that such a technique of multi-plot composition was typical for the visual arts of this period. In particular, it is found in the composition of the picturesque ceiling "Proletarians of all countries, unite! (The Triumph of Socialism)" by the artist V. M. Izmailovich, who combined various subjects in a single pictorial space ^{[11, pp. 56-62]}. The same formal technique of arranging several plot scenes smoothly flowing into each other was used by the artist V. I. Maslov in the drawing of the decorative fabric "Rural Consumer Society" (Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1929) and by the artist S. P. Burylin in the drawing of the decorative fabric "New Village" (Ivanovo, factory of the worker F. Zinoviev, 1929).In the drawing of the decorative fabric "New Village" (Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1926-1928), the artist V. I. Maslov, on the contrary, depicting the plot scenes, separates them by framing.

By creating textile drawings, the artists sought to emphasize the dynamics of a new life through formal techniques. The dynamism of the elements, which can be distinguished as another formal aspect, could be emphasized by the rhythms of lines characteristic of a particular story scene, which conveyed the dynamics of movement. A similar graphic technique is found in the drawing of the cloth "Cyclists" (the author is not known, Shlisselburg, P. Alekseev factory, late 1920-1932), in which the wheels of conventionally solved bicycles are built on the rhythm of lines emphasizing spinning movement; the dynamism of the direction of movement is additionally emphasized by the conditional solution of the figures of athletes. Interestingly, the T-shirt of one cyclist's sports uniform is solved due to the rhythm of the arcuate lines, which also echo the characteristic movement of the wheels with their bend. The dynamism of the bicycle race, created by the artist D. S. Lehtman-Zaslavsky, is read by taking a conditional image of the silhouettes of athletes presented in stylized poses characteristic of cyclists from two angles: from above and from the side (fabric "Bicycle Racing", Moscow, The First Cotton Factory, 1930).This drawing is also of interest because the dynamism of the race, in addition to the conditionally solved elements of the drawing, is further enhanced by the rapport structure of the motifs of the composition, in which cyclists, grouped according to the angle of the figure image, are arranged in a diagonally directed rhythm.

In some drawings, the dynamism of the pictorial elements could be achieved by depicting the elements of the story scene from an angle, as in the above-mentioned conditional drawing of D. S. Lehtman-Zaslavsky's "Bicycle racing", and in the realistic drawing "Rural Consumer Society" by the artist V. I. Maslov.

The technique of using multi-scale elements of the drawing was also characteristic of the plot drawings of fabrics and was found both in realistic drawings and in conventional ones. The use of different-scale elements of the drawing made it possible to show the planned nature of the plot scene. As, for example, in the drawing of decorative fabric "Rural consumer society" (artist V. Maslov, Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1929). However, it should be noted that in some drawings, the use of multi-scale elements was not used to show the planned nature of the plot scene, but was a kind of decorative device. A similar technique is typical for the drawing of the cotton print "Village Komsomol" (artist K. A. Shchuko, Alexandrov of the Ivanovo region, factory named after the III International, 1926-1928), and for the drawing of printed fabric "Vegetables for collective farm bazaars!" (artist O. V. Bogoslovskaya, textile drawing, 1933), in which the sizes of plant elements they are disproportionate to the scale of the human figure.

The formal features of the plot drawings could be characterized not only by the degree of conventionality of the form, but also by a coloristic solution – a riot of color or, conversely, the use of shades of the same color. It is noteworthy that there are drawings made in several colors, with shades and semitones obtained as a result of superimposing one color on another. The riot of color and the realism of the coloristic solution of the elements of the drawing is characteristic of the fabric "Rural Consumer Society" (artist V. I. Maslov, Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1929), for fabrics produced by the 1905 revolution (Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1920-1930). The lack of conventionality in the color scheme deprived such plot drawings of ornamentation and also brought them closer to easel art in many ways. It is worth noting that multicolored plot drawings with a large number of halftones and color overlays have certain difficulties in reproducing on the fabric due to the large number of shafts that need to work precisely with each other for high-quality reproduction of the pattern on the surface of the fabric.

An opposite example is drawings, the coloristic solution of which is characterized by laconic conditionality, the absence of semitones that set the chiaroscuro and three-dimensional modeling of the shape (color, as a rule, was used spotwise). In addition, they are characterized by coloring the visual elements of the plot motif in colors that are not typical for real life and using a limited number of colors, up to one (the so-called single-channel or single-pass drawings). The coloristic solution of the decorative fabric "New Village" is interesting (artist S. P. Burylin, Ivanovo, factory named after F. Zinoviev, 1929), which, although it has a fairly realistic color scheme of the visual elements, is distinguished by the decorative-planar use of local color fills without excessive emphasis on the three-dimensional and chiaroscuro characteristics of the elements the drawing. The most conventional coloristic solution is characteristic of the plot drawing of the Railway Transport cloth by the artist D. N. Preobrazhenskaya, solved in one red color on a white background (Ivanovo, factory of the worker F. Zinoviev).The author uses the technique of the so-called "rolling" technique to create an additional tone due to the rhythm of red lines of various thicknesses.

An interesting formal aspect is the contrast of light and shadow, which in the plot drawings of fabrics had various uses and could depend on the manner of stylistic solution of the textile pattern. For example, the contrasting combination of light and shadow models the volume of visual elements, creating a sense of depth in the drawings of such fabrics by V. I. Maslov as "Rural Consumer Society" (Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1929), "Industrialization of the village/Tractor" (Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1925).However, in conditionally solved plot compositions, such as in the "Cavalry of Budyonny" (artist N. S. Demkov, Strunino, Vladimir region, factory "Fifth October", 1930), the shadow can work silhouetted, associatively complementing the semantic component in the perception of the meaningful component of the plot.

Another formal aspect is the strengthening of the role of ornament in the creation of a plot pattern. The ornamental nature of textile drawings allows us to consider the plot compositions of printed fabrics in several directions: the human figure in action as an ornament; the plot scene as an ornament; the conclusion of the plot scene in an ornamental frame; the role of national ornament in the establishment of a new ideology.

It is possible to distinguish textile drawings in which the figure of a person in action can be grouped into a single conditional decorative element and creates an ornamental grid covering. A plot composition representing a separate integral element, as a rule, has an even distribution over the background. This technique does not imply working with the rapport joints of motives, but has a certain monotony and monotony in the rapport structure. As an example, one can cite the cloth "Worker at the workbench" (the author and place of production are not known, the end of 1920-1932), the cotton blouse "Rowers" (artist P. G. Leonov, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1930), etc.

In a separate group, you can select drawings in which you can consider the story scene as an ornament. The compositional solution of such plot drawings is characterized by the transformation of a realistic narrative plot scene into conditional geometric shapes that define the general ornamental structure of rapport. It can be noted that the general structure of the geometric structure created from stylized plot scenes is built taking into account the dynamics of movement characteristic of a particular plot and is associative in nature. Among the forms of the geometric structure of the rapport textile compositions can be distinguished: stripes, zigzags, circles, a cage, etc.

The ornamental geometric structure of the rapport covering, organized in horizontal zigzags, can be found in the cloth "Red Army Men on skis" (artist N. S. Demkov, Strunino, Vladimir region, factory "Fifth October", 1930), where the dynamics of movement of a Red Army soldier descending from the slope is emphasized by the rhythm of the stripes located at an angle, creating a zigzag pattern, associated with the tracks left by skis on snow-capped mountains. A zigzag vertical rhythm formed from the formation of figures can be found in the drawing of a cotton print "In a single formation" (artist Z. D. Markina, Ivanovo, Krasnaya Talka factory, late 1930).

It is possible to distinguish the technique of organizing the plot composition into stripes that set a rapport system, as, for example, in the drawing of the "Steam Locomotive" fabric (the author and the place of production are not known, 1920-1930s) vertical stripes can be traced, inside which the scene of a moving locomotive is placed against the background of production buildings. A similar geometric structure of vertical stripes is found in the drawing of the Red Army Parade cloth (the author is not known, Moscow, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, 1930).

An interesting example of the organization of a plot scene into a conditional circle is the drawing of a swimming cloth "Rowing" (the author is not known, Shlisselburg, P. Alekseev factory, 1930), where the rhythms of stripes of various colors located on the circles emphasize the dynamics of the composition, associatively echoing the radial streaks on the surface of the water.

You can find a variant of the plot scene, arranged in a geometric rapport system in the form of an associative cell. For example, a similar technique is found in the fabric "Factory horn" (artist S. P. Burylin, Ivanovo, New Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1930).

For some drawings consisting of several scenes, it was characteristic to enclose the plot scene in an ornamental frame (the so-called "reserve"). A similar technique is used, for example, in the drawings of fabrics "Industrialization of the village/Tractor" (artist V. Maslov, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1925) and "New Village" (artist V. I. Maslov, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1926-1928), in which the plot scenes are framed with floral ornaments. The compositional construction of the ornament grid allows us to draw an analogy with the composition in the cartouche.

The role of the national ornament in the establishment of a new ideology influenced the formal features of the plot compositions. In all the variety of propaganda textile drawings, one can find plot compositions using national ornamental motifs, in which the stylistics of the national ornament can influence the formal and stylistic solution of pictorial forms. This allows us to consider the plot compositions as a national ornament. Interestingly, national associativity is transmitted with a high degree of formal conditionality. For example, in the educational fabric "Likbez" (artist P. G. Leonov, Ivanovo, Kohoma Manufactory, 1931), oriented for sale in Central Asia, an ornamental development of a story scene based on the national oriental pattern and the color of Khan atlas is used. The white-earth fabric is executed in three colors characteristic of the national ornament of Central Asia: golden, red and blue. Stylized in an avant-garde manner, the national motif of Khan atlas determines the formal and stylistic solution of the plot composition based on the rhythm of the bands. The conditional images of female figures in the story scene are solved by the artist through the rhythm of lines with plastic characteristic of Khan atlas, which "dissolves" them in the general ornamental covering of the rapport composition. Russians Russian Village" decorative fabric plot drawing is interesting (artist S. P. Burylin, Ivanovo, Bolshaya Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya Manufactory, 1925-1932), where the plot composition dedicated to village life is framed by a stylized ornament characteristic of Russian carved architecture.

We can consider another formal aspect characteristic of some plot drawings, highlighting compositions that can create a plot scene through association, rather than directly. In some plot drawings, an association with the plot could be created through the use of formal techniques for solving pictorial forms. Such an example is the plot drawing of the cloth "Demonstration" (drawing of the factory drawing room, Moscow, the First cotton Factory in 1929), in which linear shapes assembled in dense groups are associated with a conventional image of the heads of demonstrators creating a crowd. The difference in the scale of the conventional elements of the drawing creates a sense of perspective reduction and gives an idea of the mass character of the depicted scene. The same formal technique, creating an association with the plot, was used in the drawing "Demonstration" (the author is not known, Ivanovo, factory named after G. K. Korolev, 1929).

In conclusion, it should be noted the intersection of formal and substantive aspects of the organization of the artistic integrity of the subject drawings of the 1920s-1930s and their complementarity. In some drawings, both aspects of the organization of the artistic integrity of the plot composition can be traced, and (or) several points within the framework of one aspect.

Thus, as a result of the study of the plot compositions of printed domestic fabrics of the 1920s and 1930s, the following conclusions can be drawn:

1. The plot compositions, which form an important part in the art of fabric ornamentation in the 1920s and 1930s, contain a figurative reflection of the era.

2. The study of formal and substantive aspects suggests that the plot drawings had a dual character: a combination of the thematic unity of the plot compositions and the variety of the formal character of the drawing;

3. The analysis of the content aspects makes it possible to identify characteristic content features in new subjects related to the transformation of the country in post-revolutionary times, as well as to note their connection with fine art and consider them from the point of view of formal and stylistic features inherent not only in decorative and applied, but also in fine art.

4. The analysis of formal aspects makes it possible to identify a variety of artistic approaches to solving common themes related to new subjects and to note the simultaneous coexistence of traditions of realism and avant-garde trends in the style of plot drawings.

5. The attempt to study the substantive and formal aspects of the organization of the artistic integrity of the subject drawings of the 1920s and 1930s has not only theoretical (using the proposed research methodology in further studies of the history of artistic textiles), but also practical value (using the results of the work in modern artistic practice of fabric ornamentation, as well as in the field of training textile designers).