A study (264 pages and 140 illustrations) by Bojana Popović completes this exhibition. The study provides insight into extensive, well documented and recent researches of applied art created in the period between the two World Wars. The author discusses the attitude of contemporaries towards applied art, their prejudices, their desires to create a national style and their acceptance of European applied art.

Two decades influenced by the World Wars represent a brilliant epoch in the history of applied art. Consisting of many extremes, it united tradition and the avant-garde, the general and the local, the concepts of social engagement and those of consumerism, hand and machine work, unique works and mass reproductions, elitism and populism, state of the art esthetics and trifling kitsch.

Applied art became a commonplace element of contemporary life even in societies without previously built awareness about its significance. This was also the case with Belgrade where its inhabitants used to discuss important issues like: who should be commissioned with a relief on the building façade, who with stained glass windows in the entrance hall, who with frescoes in the dining room, who should be asked to make a Louis XVI sleeping room furniture, who should be engaged to promote a company or which nicely illustrated book or magazine should make their pastime more pleasant?