Pictorial compositions by Tatyana von Leys

And if in the centuries before this eternal dream of youth and elegance could be rendered by means of painting for the first time in the 21st-century contemporary technologies offer the possibility to actually make this dream come true.The recent developments in bio-technology, robotics  and artificial intelligence offer revolutionary prospects for the development of human sciences inclusive promising possibilities for those interested and especially for those who can afford it to constantly optimise themselves in order to preserve their good looks, youth and health.

All this however, as the artist shows in her portraits has the bitter taste of humanity becoming more and more dehumanised by being excessively dependent upon the new technologies, imperceivable algorithms behind the artificial intelligence and the likes advertised as scientific progress. It is not by chance that the main protagonist in Tatyana von Leys portraits is Betty Madame de Rothschild – who was a woman of high society and whose salon was the most exquisite and desirable place to be of her times. The portrait was commissioned by her with the purpose to be displayed in this salon for the guests to admire. Jean-Louis Dominique Ingres’ this masterpiece does Madame de Rothschild justice by showing her as a stunning beauty. Tatyana von Leys in her contemporary cycle of portraits after Ingres offers us an impressive richness of interpretation and ways of seeing of this timeless masterpiece. She deconstructs the portrait offering us a careful and thorough analysis of the each single form, questioning each detail, gesture and movement.

It is not by chance that in Tatyana’s paintings we see ladies of upper class and high society. Access to the newest advances of science and technology allowing one to optimize and upgrade oneself has always been the privilege of the rich elites increasing even more the gap between the classes: the so-called rich and the beautiful as opposed to the sick and the poor.

The gap between the perfected human species and those who cannot afford turning themselves into better versions of themselves will become dangerously huge. Painting is all about appearances and make-believe. Therefore it is of extreme importance that a contemporary woman artist takes up this topic of technological progress: biotechnology transhumanism and its affects on contemporary societies in general and particularly on women because painting as the medium has the power to reveal and to question the essence of the technological transformations and their effects upon us. As Tatyana herself puts it, she sees herself “as a representative of Posthuman-Art, which impressively examines the aesthetics of the monstrous, the hybrid and the amorphous.(…just with the means of painting) I see my series “Posthuman Studies” as an analysis of certain works of art for the philosophical underpinning of critical posthumanism, transhumanism and metahumanism. My credo: Away from the aesthetics of the 20th century.”

On the other hand painting as an act of creation can lay bare the make-believe, fake character of this technological progress, showing the dramatic failure of humans in all respects, their turning into monsters and cyborgs. “Homo Deus” quoting Yuval Harari, is not a human becoming divine, not a divinity becoming human but a failed attempt of humanity to imitate gods in creating. Transhuman Entanglments is a highly illustrative series of studies of Ingres timeless masterpiece showing us an exceptional richness of interpretation of his portrait where the contemporary female artist, Tatyana von Leys makes it evident that in the posthuman epoch machines might finally replace mankind, with the beauty and elegance being distorted beyond recognition.

written by Dr. phil. L. Fürstenow