Tenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

The phenomenon of portraiture that is defaced, or rid of its subject’s identifying features even as it sustains stylistic markers of traditional western ways of seeing, has been variously referred to by the press and gallerists as Glitch Art, Post-Baconism, Abstract Realism, and the Gheniesque. In the new paper I propose here, I will offer a less loaded name for the trend, one to which all recent relevant production may be firmly tied without limiting individual examples’ stylistic, perceptual, thematic or political origins: prosopagnosic art. I want to update the log of practitioners currently working in the prosopagnosic mode, to re-contextualize established artists in the space they now occupy, and to suggest possible new avenues for analysis and understanding of this worldwide movement. In addition, I will consider a smaller and less compelling but nonetheless active corollary trend, the un-un-selfie, which is characterized by a reversal of the dominant trope that obscures the face while conveying other planes in a realist manner, instead fulfilling traditional western expectations for portraiture while flirting with the formal traits of the primary genre.