The scientific problem of the presented dissertation is the study of the dynamics
of changes in the representation of gender identity through the artistic
interpretation of "masculine" and "feminine" in the visual arts of Ukraine after
the acquisition of independence, that is, during the last three decades, taking into
account the renewal of ethical-aesthetic, socio-cultural, political, economic
strategies, against the background of technological innovations.
The period of Independence of Ukraine, which began at the end of the 20th
century, opened an era characterized by significant transformations in the socio-
cultural space, a rejection of the usual cultural, ethical, aesthetic and other
stereotypes. The beginning of the 1990s became a kind of "bifurcation point",
marking a critical state in politics, ideology, and culture, followed by a transition
to another level of orderliness. At this time, the understanding of gender, its not
innate, but socially acquired nature, is subject to a new interpretation, the right of
the individual to freely choose more masculine or feminine manifestations,
positioning himself depending on physiological, psychological and mental
characteristics, social functions, "role" tasks and others is asserted factors. This
idea, in its various modalities, visibly inspires philosophers, sociologists, cultural
scientists, artists of Ukraine and the Western world, thereby organically fitting
our state into the context of European culture.
Unfortunately, the blurring of gender criteria in the transition period, due to the
lack of post-classical conceptual models of gender-defined subjectivity,
reinforced by the worldwide trend towards global shifts in the study of feminine
and masculine, complicates the systematic study of modern art, hinders the
understanding of the originality of contemporary Ukrainian visual culture and its
place in the Europeanized world. In such a rather difficult theoreticalmethodological situation, the introduction of a gender approach to the study of
works of domestic visual arts that have been launched into cultural circulation
over the past thirty years appears to be relevant and fundamentally important not
only from the standpoint of art history and cultural science, but also due to the
deep connection with changes in social and gender norms in the world - both in
the field of theoretical understanding and in terms of practical implementations.
Based on a comprehensive analysis of the corpus of authoritative theoretical
works and a significant amount of factual materials — performative art practices,
works of fine art, photography, considering the synchronous cinematographic
landscape, the study shows how in domestic visual works of the turn of the 20th21st centuries, gender is symptomatically intertwined with ideological, political,
national. It is in these contexts of social life that the logic of transformations in
the artistic interpretation of feminine and masculine is inscribed, the periodization
of these transformations is given, the transgression of some archetypes associated
with a specific gender is revealed, which gives grounds to predict further
liberation from the determination of stereotypical thinking in domestic scientific
thought and artistic practices, to predict the emergence new "gender
compositions" in visual embodiments of male and female, which will necessarily
be formed as a result of changes in the architecture of society in updated historical
and political contexts.
On the basis of the introduced typological analysis of paintings, screen, and
photographic works, it was revealed how the artistic interpretation of the
dynamics of relations between the sexes and within gender "hierarchies" is used
as a kind of matrix when involving the gender discourse in power relations,
sometimes for the purpose of legitimizing violence, sometimes for justification
of social inequality. It is shown how conflicting/ambiguous representations of
masculinity and femininity impose on the audience the idea of "standard" and
"deviant" models of male and female manifestations, and the visual interpretation
of various "dissonances" and "asymmetries" serves as a source of emotionally
colored aesthetic impressions, and also an effective lever/means of supporting
and correcting political, social, interpersonal relations in society.
The gradual withdrawal from the "shadow zone" of such gender-colored
characters as metrosexuals, transsexuals, transgenders, transvestites and other
representatives of subcultural, sexual "minorities" is articulated, which indicates
the spread of the global "gender revolution" in the field of domestic culture, the
involvement of scientists and artists of Ukraine to the impartiality and tolerance
characteristic of the Eurocentric world of the beginning of the 21st century.
