The author's doll in my opinion loses out very much because of what is called a "doll". It should be called a sculpture, not a traditional one, but a sculpture that includes costume, wig, accessories, face and body painting and God knows what else.

Real puppet masters must be multi-talented sculptors, artists, designers, tailors, hairdressers, but also carpenters, shoemakers and craftsmen of all trades. (If you need to make something, see YouTube.) An artistic doll is always the work of an artist, in whom the spark of God lives, inspiring him to create something "in his own image and likeness".

I am sure that the artist's creations can tell more about his inner world than a professional psychoanalyst.

In short, the author's doll is a completely unique layer of art, which is also one of the most democratic. Why? Firstly, you don't need a diploma to become a puppet master, although art education helps a lot. Many excellent craftsmen in the art of puppetry are self-taught. And secondly, art dolls, unlike original sculptures made in a single copy, are relatively cheap and available to many collectors.

Designer dolls enable collectors to acquire a unique work of art, one of a kind, which no one else has.

In my opinion, a good artistic doll is a doll that silently tells its own story. If the doll evokes emotion, reflection, awakens the imagination - that equates it to art.

So, what is an artistic doll and how does it differ from a "non artistic doll?"

There is no clear definition, as the work of puppeteers is limitless in its diversity: from primitive creations - "a stick, a stick, a little pickle, so the little man came out" - to the heights of artistic mastery.

Therefore, many professional organizations that unite and support masters of puppetry, define an artistic doll as a creation of an artist, made in a single copy, by the artist's own hands, without using ready-made forms and parts. Nevertheless, copies of author's dolls made in limited copies (provided that the copies are made by the author himself) are also classified as artistic.

In my opinion, an art doll is different from all other dolls as the original painting of the artist is different from posters and reproductions.

Many puppeteers consider the work of the French artist Edgar Degas, made by him in 1881, to be the first author's art doll. It was a "Petite Danseuse" (Little Dancer) statuette, wearing a cloth dress.

Whether so or not, the little dancer combined sculpture and fabric - something that later became a traditional characteristic of the art doll. Since then, the movement of the puppet from a ritual object and children's toy to a work of art began.

The twentieth century, with its technological innovations, has put the production of dolls on an assembly line. Buying dolls became affordable for many, which also gave rise to a relatively new kind of collecting - plangonism or simply collecting dolls.

Doll collectors were divided into those who collected antique, rare and very expensive dolls, and those who bought their favorite mass-produced dolls of certain brands.

Art doll at that time was not yet popular, and the masters who created unique, unique author's dolls could be counted on one hand.

In the late 1930s, an American doll collector, Mary E. Lewis - got the idea to create a club for doll collectors and lovers. In 1937, the first of its kind, the National Doll and Toy Collectors Club, was born. In 1949, the organization expanded into the United Federation of Doll Clubs, Inc., which organizes annual conventions and aims to educate and spread the word about dolls, sell doll shows, and socialize collectors.

It was at these United Federation of Doll Clubs conventions that four talented women artists, who independently created unique dolls, met and got to know each other.

These four women, Helen Bullard, Gertrude Florian, Magge Head and Fawn Zeller, united by their love of dolls, enthusiasm and grandiose ideas, created the National Institute of American Doll Artists in May 1963. The NIADA became a centre for the promotion and development of the art of puppetry. The art of puppetry from that moment on entered a new orbit and truly became high art.

Since the middle of the last century, designer dolls have become more and more popular in the USA and Europe. At exhibitions of designer dolls in New York and other major cities in the United States, long lines lined up wishing to see a new original art form. Collecting designer dolls has become fashionable among Western screen and sports stars.

Meanwhile, in Russia, art dolls as a genre hardly existed until the mid-80s. Designer Elena Yazykova, considered to be one of Russia's first puppeteers, set up the first puppet gallery, Rosa Azora, in the late 1980s, which later gave birth to the Association of Puppet Artists of Russia.

A special feature of art dolls in Russia is that from the very beginning a very high standard for the quality of works was set for local artists. And the puppeteer painters of Russia, unlike their Western colleagues, overwhelmingly have a professional art education. Painters, sculptors, designers, theater and film artists, jewelers, animators, decorators have found ways of self-expression and realization in the art of designer dolls. That is why the artistic level of Russian dolls is very high.

Alexandra Khudyakova, Chairman of the Association of Puppet Artists of Russia, once said that "a true puppet artist must have a professional art education". "It is necessary to study drawing, painting, sculpture, to know anatomy... When creating a work of art one has to understand its cultural context, know the history of art... That's why we think it's necessary to clearly distinguish between real art and a hobby. Art dolls are not a hobby, but a profession in which real artists work."

Alla Berezhkova
Atlanta, USA