The scientific problem of the presented dissertation is to determine the essential specificity of portraiture as a product of culture and art, and to conceptualise portraiture as an image-creating tool in the context of modern sociocultural processes, technological innovations, economic and political changes in Ukraine at the end of the 20th– beginning of the 21st centuries.
The turn of the 21st century in the culture of Ukraine is characterized by significant socio-cultural transformations, and rethinking of longstanding cultural, ethical, and aesthetic ideas. The rapid development of the latest technologies and the expansion of image ideology lead to a significant rethinking of approaches to the visual representation of an individual, which makes it obvious that portraiture has left the sphere of purely artistic practices for a broader field of socio-cultural practices.
The new system of socio-cultural communication, which is being built simultaneously with the rapid development of technologies, requires the individual to constantly update their person in the media space, dictates new approaches to self-representation, and forms new models of behaviour. At the same time, the process of commodification of cultural space involves the dynamics of
consumption of goods and services, constant demonstration of one’s own lifestyle, emphasis on one’s own success and achievements. The expansion of image ideology, characterized by the dominance of easier-to-perceive forms of social existence, fills these forms with mythologised and stimulating external effects, and creates a new socio-communicative environment in which the image becomes a mandatory form of socialisation of the individual and organisation of social life. In this situation, portraiture becomes a guide to a person’s "image" and an integral component of the process of an individual’s socialisation. Portraiture in its image context as a system of means of presentation/self-presentation of an individual is becoming one of the most popular practices both in professional life and in the field of everyday communication.
The development of high-techs significantly changes not only the technical means of creating a portrait/image (digital camera, smartphone, etc.), but also the range of conceptions about the personality/human being and the forms of their representation. Thanks to the digital technologies, smartphone and social networks, the individual becomes self-sufficient in what was previously considered exclusively in terms of art, that is, in the creation of their own representation, which, thanks to the spread of mass culture, the development of advertising and PR, turns into an image-representation.
New practices of representing the individual are emerging (selfies, photo sessions in social networks, digital avatars, etc.). Communication moves to virtual worlds; it is built according to the rules of social media and socials existence, where portraiture plays a key role. Self-representation in the Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc. social networks, blogging and influencing practices, the use of digital avatars or deepfake technologies are becoming integral components of modern communication with all its technological privileges and dangers.
The dynamism of the modern socio-cultural situation, in which the image becomes a substitute for the representation in its classical sense, requires a rethinking of our understanding of portraiture, which today is becoming one of the actively sought-after socio-cultural practices, as such that includes the entire range of components of reflection of the personality/human being, i.e. not only purely technical and expressive artistic or scientific means (painting, sculpture, literature, psychology, linguistics, etc.), but also representation-image forming and modelling means (clothing, pose, place, environment, broadcast channel, etc.).
Therefore, the dissertation study proposes the author’s definition of the concept of portraiture, viz.: portraiture is a socio-cultural practice of modelling/constructing a person’s image using the system of representation/image cultivating tools, which allows to reflect visual, psychological, typological, sociocultural, ethnic, ideological, political, professional, behavioural, ethical, aesthetic, etc. features of the personality/human being or create their visual simulacrum.
The work considers historical modifications of portraiture as a socio-cultural phenomenon, and defines its specific characteristics. The conceptual and categorical framework of the study has been expanded and specified.
