In 1912, as a student at the Odessa Art School, Iakov Chernikhov became fascinated with the compositions of classical ornaments. It is difficult to say why he became so interested in what was at that time the area of a purely decorative form of art. However, “rhythms are older than images – in consciousness and in art.” In the history of culture, ornament--like dance and, later, music--established rhythms, which left for subsequent generations these peculiar oscillograms from one epoch or another.

Over 3,000 various constructions of classical ornaments have been made by Iakov Chernikhov. He found out the methods, by means of which the construction of complicated kinds of ornaments is performed. With this aim, he singled out “breaking up” and “complication” of the image.

The grid, basket-work, and silhouette ornaments developed by Chernikhov and named by him in a rather old-fashioned way, prefigured by half a century such phenomenons as computer graphics and pop-art. These ornaments possess an ability to exist in 3-dimensional space and expand in any direction, unlike classical 2-dimensional ornaments, whose construction unfolds on the surface of paper, fabric, individual objects or walls. “But no matter how modest that initiative was,” wrote Chernikhov subsequently, “it served as the foundation for all my subsequent explorations”.

The Iakov Chernikhov’s book “Classical ornaments” was published in 1930 by the “International book” Publishers. The rich material of compositional constructions that appeared in the press for the first time was broken up in 50 sections of classical and modern ornaments. The critics noted the value of this fundamental work for the printing, textile industries and applied arts.
“The splendid original illustration in rich artistic forms of modern graphics effectively distinguish this book from numerous works of that sort”, - Academician G. Grimm wrote in his “Opinion”.

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