Art master Yulia Gusarova is an artist of multifaceted talent

Nekrasova-Karateeva Ol'ga Leonidovna ORCID: 0000-0002-8479-7330 Professor, Department of Decorative Arts and Design, Herzen State Pedagogical University 191186, Russia, North-Western region, Saint Petersburg, nab. Moika River, 48 building 6, office 27 nkol1@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The fate of any artist determines the direction and nature of his work.  Without even being declared in advance by the author or one of the art critics, the visual perception of an artistic work provides an opportunity for the viewer to enter into individual contact with the author outside the time of his life and real presence. The thinking and skill of the creator is fixed in an artistic object by visual and expressive means. There are masters of one theme, one craft and skill level who create only in the range of their own gift, but nature gives everyone different gifts, and history preserves the names and examples of creativity of many who surprise viewers with the versatility of their talent.

         The creative fate of St. Petersburg artist Yulia Vasilievna Gusarova took place on the traditions of culture and art. 

Her creative destiny was predetermined by her origin. Vital creative energy is inherent in Julia at the genetic level in the family of famous artists: the painter Vasily Gusarov and the textile artist Larisa Romanova. In a family of artists – workers of art, by their example, she comprehended the principles of creativity: passion, striving for novelty, enthusiasm, loyalty to the cause, responsibility for quality, endurance. 

Yulia is a teenager brought up in a constant creative process, in an atmosphere of lively communication between artists – parents and their friends, an exchange of opinions between artists, in the discussion of cultural events, in the cognitive environment of the largest museums (the State Hermitage, the State Russian Museum, the Russian Ethnographic Museum and others), on the example of endless art exhibitions and symposiums.  This is how her own culture and way of thinking, vital energy, a personal indicator of productivity in training and in practice, a sense of her capabilities and strength in artistic creativity, as well as involvement in a serious comprehension of the history and theory of art and world culture of different eras and peoples were formed. "True art is born not out of a certain "penchant for the elegant", but out of a personal connection with life, with its human content. It is in establishing such a connection that art finds its deepest, essential justification" ^{[1, p. 186]}.

She received professional education and creative education while studying at the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass of the V. I. Mukhina LVHPU (now the A. L. Stiglitz SPGHPA), where her idols, ceramic artists from the One Composition group, once studied ^[2]. "One Composition" – 10 exhibitions of a group of Leningrad ceramic artists from 1977 to 1986, the main condition of which was the idea of showing not functional decorative and applied ceramics, but artistic, pictorial and sculptural plastics as a new kind of fine art ^{[3, p. 23]}.

Like them, she learned the laws of creativity in decorative art, the main of which were formulated by their teachers:

- there is no applied artist, there is a universal professional artist, which every student should strive for;

- the basis of creativity is world culture and art; human–oriented goal-setting;  

- the algorithm of artistic creativity is as follows: the conceived image is worked out in sketches and samples, implemented in the technological process in the trinity of entities: the author's idea – material – technology - work;

- material (in this case clay) – co-author, partner, teacher. In co-creation with her, the body of the work is created, the idea is materialized, the final artistic image is formed.

The traditions of the school were formed under the influence of the wisdom and own successful creative experience of professors: Vladimir Fedorovich Markov, Vladimir Sergeevich Vasilkovsky, teachers: Nina Stepanovna Kochneva, Olga Leonidovna Nekrasova-Karateeva and technologists: Anatoly Ivanovich Miklashevsky, Susanna Sergeevna the First.

"The structure of the training program at the department was built by V. F. Markov as an architectural structure: 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 art education" ^{[4, p. 38]}.

Professor, Honored Artist of the RSFSR, Candidate of Architecture, Professor V. S. Vasilkovsky (1921-2002) expressed his attitude to teaching as follows: "We are entrusted to teach future artists. The responsibility is extraordinary. What do I consider the main thing in learning? To teach the student to solve artistic problems independently. Independently, therefore, without guardianship. ... In the course of my work, I try to help bring the student's independent plan to a good result..." ^{[5, p. 185]}.

Yulia Gusarova's graduation work was the diptych "Alexander Nevsky" and "The Battle of the Neva" (1990), executed on large ceramic plates in the technique of graphic representation and glaze painting. V. S. Vasilkovsky directed the work, drawing her attention to the severity and solemnity of the selected plots, to the epicness of the artistic image of the historical hero, to the truthfulness of the image of military ammunition of that time. "The master understood the value of live drawing, the uniqueness of the find. But, at the same time, the plot or composition did not let go of his attention for a long time, repeated several times, with variations, they acquired a different and new sound" ^{[6, p. 11]}. It was a bold application to create a decorative and visual work on a historical theme in ceramic material without a subject-utilitarian task.

The first serious author's work served as the basis for the further creative path of the young and interesting artist, who repeatedly turned to historical subjects later. "Fascination with history" (in her words) led Yulia Gusarova to search for her artistic language and her experience of comprehending and rethinking traditions.

Such historically associative themes and images arise from her, as if emerging from the depths of history, reminding today of important events and heroes of previous centuries. Motives and plots from the deep history of culture and art are resurrected: "Medieval Europe", "Medieval Russia", "Italian Renaissance". "The knowledge of bygone times and the knowledge of countries is the decoration and food of human minds" ^{[7, p. 174]}.

Her characteristic delicacy, lyricism, artistic taste and understanding of style, as well as a penchant for symbolic thinking, allow Yulia Gusarova to comprehend the old (eternal) art in a new way, and the unexpected angle of looking at it suggests an original creative idea and author's stylization. The creation of creative works of art in the character of the stylishness of the primary sources is a difficult task of an ethical and aesthetic order solved in her personal experiences of the topic, ideas and in the search for her own expressive language.

A cross-cutting feature of Yulia Gusarova's artistic creativity is the symbolism of the images and content of the works. A symbol is an allegory, a sign of something else in a visible image, being a conditional or coded designation of meaning. Symbols perform an important cognitive function of symbolic representation, allegorical expression. Encoded information affecting the viewer's perception is recorded in them. In this regard, the arguments of the American psychologist and art critic Zion Avital in his article "Figurative art versus abstract: levels of connectivity" about the cognitive function of symbols in the perception of works of art are interesting.: "In the world of meanings, symbols are carriers of connection–disconnection, or "codis". (Codis is "a paradoxical attribute of consciousness, denoting both an object and its opposite" ^{[8, p. 374]}). And again: "The most important difference between figurative and abstract art is that figurative art has a system of symbols, and abstract art does not have it" ^{[8, p. 374]}.

In her work, the meanings of the artistic tradition are combined, intertwined in a new author's composition. Stories, plots, and characters are being conjectured. One of such works is a decorative panel "Slow Internet" with underglaze painting on raw enamel on ceramic tiles, shown at the Biennial Exhibition "One square Meter" at the Stieglitz Academy in 2023 (the biennial exhibition "One square Meter" URL: https://www.ghpa.ru/academy/all/item/vystavka-biennale-odin-kvadratnyj-metr-v-akademii-shtiglitsa (accessed 31.08.2023)). This is a picture depicting a non-former history with incredible characters, with a fantastic natural and architectural environment. Funny, ridiculous, outlandish, but good-natured characters actively interact with each other, and the depicted plots are combined into a coherent story.

The examination of this original work is accompanied by a flicker of thoughts about the real and the absurd, but at the same time it ends with an unexpected convincing addition of visible event scenes into a single pictorial fabric, solved according to the rules of a closed decorative composition. The dense saturation of the panels with images of fragments of historical environments and various characters is read as a story continuously opening in the space of the format, as a clearly visualized text. Like an intelligence card, the author's idea is visibly presented. At the same time, the internal scale and interrelation of all elements are maintained, the coloristic harmony of the color relations of open, but not bright light colors is observed, surrounded by a black background, as if torn into the light from oblivion, from other layers of the dark world.

In general, different worlds, as specially arranged systems of being, have always interested her, she wanted to understand them and visibly imagine them.

The composition of the decorative panel "At depth" is interesting – composed of separate, but tightly fitted to each other figured ceramic layers with images of deep-sea inhabitants. Underglaze painting on raw enamel with blue-gray paint is executed in the best traditions of tonal painting with harmony of contrasts of light and dark. Carefully drawn images of fish, seashells and mollusks that closely inhabit the marine near–bottom space invite viewers to get acquainted with this amazing underwater world - rich and diverse, bizarre and beautiful.

Her work reflects the impressions of travel, told in the language of ceramics. This is the Venetian series, triptych: "Venice. Lion", "Carnival" and "Venice. Cannaregio" – ceramic dishes with coloristic enamel painting (2012, 2016).

"Venice. Lion" is a decorative dish with a diameter of 47 cm. with a light image of a stone relief with a winged lion (the symbol of the city) placed in the center on a background of color spots arranged perpendicular to each other, associated with canals, house walls, and the sky. Everything is beautifully and harmoniously coordinated.

Decorative dish "Venice. Cannaregio" with a diameter of 47 cm. represents the image of one of the six historical districts of Venice. It is located in the northern part of the city along the Cannaregio Canal and is the most remote from the center and completely unrepressible. The streets of this area have no ceremonial attractions, but are densely filled with old houses and churches since the XVI century. In the circle of the ceramic plate, as if in memory, specific fragments float out: stone reliefs, pink walls, the ripples of the canal water, the restrained blue of the sky, and everything bears the historical patina of time. These works show the artist's fine pictorial flair and mastery of ceramic painting technology.

In love with her hometown, knowing its history and architecture, Yulia Gusarova created a series of large painted ceramic dishes with decorative compositions on the theme of views of urban rivers from the windows of Leningrad – St. Petersburg apartments.

The dish "Over the Fontanka" (2021) is painted with underglaze paints on raw enamel. This is not just a beautiful picture, not just a still life on the window, it is an encrypted text about the meaning for the author of this place and entourage – the whole environment. The Fontanka River is the largest tributary of the Neva, so named under Peter I because the water from it fed the fountains in the Summer Garden. The composition represents a view from the window of a fast-flowing river. Along the granite embankment, luxurious mansions of St. Petersburg architecture are lined up. In the center of the composition, on the windowsill, there is a vase and a fragment of a dish with a painting in the style of the Renaissance Italian majolica beloved by the author. In the albarello vase there is a poor bouquet of only three plants, which, however, are perceived as a hidden designation of the most important phases of human life: a blooming hyacinth is a symbol of youth, spring and optimism; a laurel branch is a symbol of maturity, victory and glory (the laurel is also recognized as a symbol of Apollo, the patron saint of the arts); and a broken, drying dandelion – an expression of sadness, an indication of the decline of life. The composition also includes images of two goldfinches, which are also not accidental here, it is a lucky talisman of a family of artists educated at the Baron A. L. Stieglitz School (Academy). The surname Stieglitz (German Stieglitz) translates as "goldfinch" – a songbird that brings happiness. There is also a beautiful rapan seashell – a symbol of a strong home, a keeper of secrets, a talisman and a family talisman. The hidden meanings of these images expand the meaningful, semantic space of the entire composition, but the main thing is not this, but the fact that the work is a subtle painting that conveys the bright mood of the depicted moment.  

Another large dish with a diameter of 47 cm. "On Okhta" (2021) is also painted with underglaze paints on raw enamel. Okhta is a district on the right bank of the Neva River, historically it was a handicraft part of the city and was also the "breadwinner" of St. Petersburg, supplying vegetables, milk, fish to the city. In the composition drawn as a top view on the right bank of the river, a working district with factory pipes is depicted, and at the bottom in the center is a large – structurally openwork, metal Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge across the Neva River connecting the outskirts of Okhta with St. Petersburg. In the foreground of the composition, as if on a balcony, over the dark blue water of the Neva, a still life with two large, golden bream fish and a small silvery Neva smelt hung for drying is unfolded. This is again a symbolic visual story about the place of a person's life in a particular area of St. Petersburg, painterly executed in ceramics.

Yulia Gusarova, as a ceramic artist, works not only with images, but also with forms, reliefs, ceramic sculptures. Her sculptural works, easily and convincingly sculpted by clever hands, well-made things. Formally and meaningfully, they are created as a solution to a complex compositional problem.

Such is the sculptural composition "Little Catastrophe" (2011), composed of separate elements balancing on a vertical axis: at the base of the hemisphere with the image of an ancient Greek city, a cube is fixed at the point of contact with an angle as a fragment of ancient architecture, on the cube, too, a falling column is fixed at one axial point, on the edge of the capitals of which on the back the figure of a winged lion is dangerously held on the paws. This sculptural composition was created as a visual formula for a three-dimensional image of catastrophes from earthquakes described in ancient historical evidence. The composition is perceived as a monument to these destructive events, but also as a symbol of the resilience of ancient culture.

Yulia Gusarova, as a whole, is a rationally reasonable person who can understand and explain everything, while at the same time she is often carried away by fantastic images, which she strives to visually embody in her own way. In this regard, a special theme in her work was the "Medieval Bestiary" (from bestiarum vocabulum) – a medieval encyclopedia about ancient creatures, various minerals and plants. She created various sculptural forms in ceramics as an embodiment in the volume of non–existent fantastic characters of the "Bestiary" - fictional, mythological and mystical, described and depicted in bizarre pictures. She creatively implements unusual images, characters, collisions. More than once, and in different materials and forms, she portrays such characters. These are ceramic sculptures, reliefs, vessels, mosaics, textile paintings.  

For example, the ceramic sculpture "Bestiary. Winged Lion" (2014), shown for the first time at the open exhibition "Glass and Ceramics in the Landscape" on the meadow in front of the Elaginoostrovsky Palace (International Exhibition Glass and Ceramics in the Landscape. URL: https://vk.com/club95315234 (accessed 31.08.2023)). The sculpture is made of brown-purple clay and burned in a high fire. The monumental volumes of the body, neck, head and powerful paws are tightly coupled with each other, creating a holistic volume. Only the mane and wings covered with black glaze are decorated in relief. The lion's body is spread out in a prone position, which indicates the moment of the beast's rest, but a vertically placed high neck with a head and a seemingly human face looking forward, demonstrate tension and readiness for a jerk. It's as if a compressed spring is hidden inside, which can suddenly blow up this calm. Technically and figuratively, the sculpture is executed masterfully.

The idea of the mystery of the historical evolution of animal forms is embodied in an unusual ceramic object called by the author "The Game of Evolution" (2015). This is a three-dimensional form of the body of an unknown animal, combining different stages of development: with a fish tail, a strong body covered with a scaly shell, on four large animal clawed legs, with a blunt head without a neck and with an almost human face, covered with a green-blue metallizing glaze. The ceramic miracle looked almost natural in the grass on the Elaginoostrovsky meadow.

Julia, with her specific look, either sees the shapes of vessels in animals, or guesses the shapes of animals or birds in vessels. She is excited and fascinated by the semantics of things, their forms and images. In the series of this zoomorphic-fantastic series, ceramic "Ornithoids" (2016) – bird vases were created. Simple hollow shapes, similar to the bodies of birds, are covered with black glaze with a feather-like assembly of white enamel, and live flowers with inflorescences are inserted into the holes, like bird heads with tufts and long, curious beaks. They seem to be sniffing out something, looking for it, examining it in the grass. The name of this group refers to an ancient legend about an unusual race of man–birds - "ornithoids", allegedly once inhabited our planet. You can recall Sumerian reliefs with images of characters with human bodies, but with the heads and wings of birds.

      Ceramics is the main creative material of the artist, allowing her to create plastic and pictorial compositions, but she also mastered other types of decorative creativity, learning this from her parents.

      Yulia's father – Gusarov Vasily Petrovich, who was a teacher and head of the Department of Monumental Painting at the LVHPU named after V. I. Mukhina, brought up several generations of professional muralists, taught his daughter oil painting and mosaic art (URL: http://gusarov-art.narod.ru / (accessed 31.08.2023)). Helping her father in the execution of orders for the monumental design of public interiors in a set of mosaic works, studying the traditions of mosaic art, she absorbed classical antique aesthetics, mastered this creative technique and with pleasure, and now very successfully creates original mosaic works that attract the attention of viewers at exhibitions and are celebrated by professional artists. So her creative possibilities were enriched. Mosaic has become another facet of Yulia Gusarova's professional artistic creativity.

A large mosaic tondo "Fish" (2017), 75 cm in diameter, made of ceramic tiles of different sizes with interspersed colored stones, is a kind of greeting to the ancient masters! The composition incorporated the image of a fish as an early Christian symbol. The overall color of the mosaic is golden, and in the fish it is colored with green, red-brown and white inserts. The decorative interpretation of the pattern on the body of the fish and the background outlining it is an intricate game of the mosaic artist.

Another mosaic work full of symbolic meanings is a 50x50 cm square composition. "The Biblical motif" (2017) is composed of smalt and colored stones. This is a decorative still life, which includes symbolic images: a white bowl with a golden pattern – an object for the rite of Communion (Eucharist); a bunch of grapes – a symbol of unity of faith in Christianity; a pear fruit – from archaic antiquity is considered a symbol of love, serves to protect family relations, as well as a wish for health; a bird – in the Christian faith it is the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and here again the goldfinch has been a symbol of the human soul since ancient times; the pomegranate fruit in Christian art is a symbol of immortality and resurrection. The background in the composition is made up of pieces of green smalt, and the green color is a symbol of eternal life. In this mosaic, as in other mosaic works by Y. Gusarova, the artistry, artistic taste and pictorial flair of the author in creating a drawing set of modular elements of the composition attracts attention.

The large composition "Grotesque" created by her is also original (fr. grotesque, lit. – "bizarre", "comical") (2019). The work consists of 9 mosaic squares and 8 ceramic ornamental inserts, the total size of the composition is 1 m2. The theme of this composition is still connected with the "Bestiary", only presented in the form of capital letters of the Latin alphabet, drawn whimsically, intricately, wittily. A multicolored set of bright mosaic elements makes this alphabet a fun, "boring alphabet". A set of small pieces of multicolored smalt picturesquely plays out the main pattern – a letter outlined in blue. Each letter represents an image of some fantastic creature in a pose corresponding to the spelling of the Latin sign. The composition presents and guesses the capital (Latin) letters of the names of the artist's family members. The composition is complemented and organized by ceramic inserts with ornamental ancient Greco-Roman stucco decoration, covered with colored glazes, like constructive draughts in architecture. The overall impression of this composition is like a bright, interesting book.

The problem of synthesis of different materials and techniques has always interested Yulia Gusarova not by simply combining them, but by increasing the expressive possibilities. This was pointed out by M. S. Kagan in section 7 "Types of syncretic-synthetic art and their varieties" in the fundamental work "Morphology of Art": "Here it turns out that another condition of synthesis is necessary – the appearance of some specific unifying principle, some special artistic energy that would be able to organize the emerging complex system, link all its facets together, into one living whole" ^{[9, p. 374]}.

Yu. Gusarova has repeatedly tried combining different materials and techniques when creating her own works, in particular, in the square (50x50 cm.) composition "Gifts of the Sea. Antique motif" (2021) It is composed of stucco ceramics and small modules of stones in mosaic technique. The ceramic relief represents a basket with a large catch: fish, octopus, seashell, turtle shell. A large hand-sculpted terracotta relief is surrounded by a mosaic of the same small module of stones of light gray-ochre, brown and almost black (the colors of the sea with sea sand), which reveals a special imagery of the theme and at the same time harmoniously combines them in a single composition. This work has become another proof of the diverse skills of the art master.

Julia Gusarova's mosaic works always demonstrate the skill and erudition of the author, encyclopedic knowledge of the features of ancient cultures and arts, their aesthetic experience, personal creative reconstruction of perceived images in their own compositions.

          Yulia Gusarova took another direction in artistic creativity from her mother, Larisa Alexandrovna Romanova, a textile artist (URL: https://persona.rin.ru/view/f/0/22006/romanova-larisa-aleksandrovna (accessed 25.08.2023)), who taught her the technique of painting "batik" and weaving, which, again, enriched her creative possibilities. Yulia creates textile works easily and with pleasure, participates with them at professional exhibitions and even became a member of the international Textile Design Association.

Parents often jointly created large tapestries for public interiors: "One of the best interior ensembles is deservedly considered the cycle of tapestries "Memories of Pavlovsk" (1979-1982), created by V. P. Gusarov in collaboration with L. A. Romanova for the banquet hall "Pavlovsk" (architect N. N. Baranov) of the Leningrad hotel "Pribaltiyskaya" ^{[10, p. 148]}.

One of the first works in "batik" is a painted panel "Journey" created in 2010.  The composition, color and set of images are revealed like a maiden's dream of a sea voyage. Light, gentle painting in a cool, blue with golden flashes of color, like a light breeze playing with the waves of the ocean and its inhabitants, evoke an emotional impression and create a lyrical mood among the audience.

Julia, as a professional exercise for silk painting, creates numerous abstract coloristic compositions in textiles on the themes of different human moods and states in nature.

As in the works of Y. Gusarova with different materials, and in her silk painting, the composition "Medieval Bestiary" (2012) naturally arose. "In silk painting, ceramics, mosaics, winged lions, fantastic fish and dragon-like creatures appear. The element of irony and good humor deprives them of gloom" ^{[11, p. 72]}.

A large, decorative silk stole (size 90x180 cm) is painted in the technique of "cold batik" based on pictures from the medieval "Bestiary" and supplemented with author's fantasies (2012). The stole, like a classic monumental fresco, is decorated with pictorial and ornamental motifs. The composition, composed of various local paintings and complementary drawings, is rhythmically inscribed in a large format of a silk cloth. Images of bizarre animals, flowers, ornaments are embedded in the general system of decorative filling. Gusarova's favorite golden gamma and the emerald green color introduced into it harmoniously create the coloristic and tonal character of this work.

Literary erudition, literacy, watching in art, intellectual, cognitive and creative activity nourish her artistic creativity. Cognition is accompanied by a deep sensory experience and understanding of what has been recognized and is realized in the creation of one's own creative work.

Another facet of talent, insistently demanding its realization, is revealed in the painting of Yu. V. Gusarova. Her paintings are lightly and richly colorfully executed landscapes and still lifes. She enthusiastically paints with oil paints, participates in art exhibitions with her paintings, receives diplomas in professional competitions.

Her inherent logical thinking required a concentrated scientific understanding of modern artistic processes, and specifically in ceramic art, which was realized by her in writing her dissertation "Leningrad ceramics as a phenomenon of domestic art of the second half of the XX century", which she successfully defended in 2011 ^[12], under the scientific supervision of O. L. Nekrasova-Karateeva. "Personal acquaintance with many of the St. Petersburg ceramists of different generations allowed us to come close to the topic under study, use unique documentary materials, talk with the participants of the process" ^{[11, p. 73]}. Now this scientific work has become a fundamental basis for further study of the history of Russian decorative and applied art.

Yulia Vasilyevna Gusarova, continuing the traditions of her family and school, teaches at two universities at once: A. L. Stiglitz SPGHPA at the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass and at the Institute of Art Education of A. I. Herzen RSPU at the Department of Decorative Art and Design. Her erudition serves as an authoritative source of knowledge necessary for the professional training of future artists and teachers.

Yu. V. Gusarova – teaches the basics of decorative composition in elementary courses, fascinates students with ceramics and porcelain painting in 3-4 courses, directs their work on diploma design and execution of graduation works in porcelain, ceramics, in the creation of textile works. Her judgments and assessments of students' achievements support young colleagues with an authoritative professional opinion. She always celebrates their academic achievements, as well as original successes and artistic discoveries in creativity.

In an interview with a journalist of Pedagogical News, she said: "The peculiarity of graduate training at the Faculty of Fine Arts is the unity of these two principles – creative and pedagogical. This is the value and universality of Herzen education. Whatever kind of art our graduates are engaged in, the main thing is that they should be able to convey to their students love and interest in creativity, improvement and realization of the best in themselves that is inherent in nature. Through ceramics, textiles, decorative composition and graphics, we educate artists in them who are able to carry their knowledge to others and constantly learn by themselves. It is honorable and responsible. And infinitely interesting" ^{[13, p. 68]}.

           Currently, Yulia Vasilyevna Gusarova is a Candidate of Art History, Associate Professor of the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass at the A. L. Stieglitz St. Petersburg Academy of Art and Industry. Life has brought her back to the beginning of her creative career at her Alma Mater, and now, as she was once taught by outstanding masters of art, together with her fellow teachers-artists, "provides professional training for artists of decorative and applied art, widely erudite in the field of traditional and modern world ceramic art and artistic glassmaking, owning ceramics technology and glasses capable of creating new, original works of authorship" ^{[14, p. 180]}. The life and work of Yulia Vasilyevna Gusarova is a holistic, harmonious, very individual phenomenon. As an artist, she realized herself in various types of decorative art, always figuratively bright and masterfully convincing, showing herself to be a true art master.

Conclusion:

During the study of the life and work of Yulia Vasilievna Gusarova, the main aspects and factors of the formation of her individual characteristics as an art master in decorative art were established.

         Yu. Gusarova is a pupil of the "Mukhina School" - LVHPU named after V. I. Mukhina, who gave the fundamental foundations of mastery in decorative and applied art, both in production and technological skills, and in individual artistic creativity.  She is a regular participant of numerous exhibitions and professional symposiums on ceramics, textiles, mosaics, painting.

Yulia Gusarova's unique author's works actively show the artist's personal handwriting, the features of the author's self-expression and the demonstration of her own aesthetic concept. Her works are characterized by the professional quality of work with different materials and techniques, the figurative expressiveness of the author's main idea, the symbolic interpretation of the theme. Plot-themed solutions in a conventional decorative manner prevail.

Continuous author's creativity in parallel with her many years of successful teaching at the A. I. Herzen State Pedagogical University (at the Institute of Art Education) and at the Department of Artistic Ceramics and Glass at the A. L. Stiglitz SPGHPA (formerly V. I. Mukhina LVHPU). She writes scientific and theoretical papers, gives public lectures, defended her PhD thesis.

The name, life and work of Yulia Vasilyevna Gusarova is worthily included in the art and cultural fund of St. Petersburg and in the national art history.