Decorative and applied arts

Decorative and applied art is an art of creating various objects for everyday life but having not only functional purpose but also certain artistic qualities. In some respect in can be compared with architecture. Like architectural constructions, such works of art do not lose their functional purpose and have the artistic and creative element closely connected with such purpose. The specific feature of decorative and applied art is that its artistic qualities are not just mere supplement to the functional and utilitarian quality of an object but also the means of its identification. At the same time the modern decorative and applied art has to a considerable degree lost its functional meaning and most of the objects that are considered pieces of such art are not used according to their intended purpose but please people with their aesthetic meaningfulness.

Decorative and applied arts are differentiated depending on the material used for the creation of such artistic objects (bone, glass, lacquer, wood etc.) or depending on the technologies used for the processing of the material (artistic carving, embroidery and so on), or according to the functional purpose of the objects (clothing, tableware, utensils etc.).

In order not to have only functional meaning, an object is supposed to be processed in a special way to be able to convey a certain ideological or emotional content.

Impression made by a work of a decorative art can sometimes be even more intense than the impression made by such "classical" arts as painting or architecture.