Contribution short abstract:

Beauty portraits with folk art props as a means of references to ethnicity have recently seen a resurgence from self-made photos, to professional and AI imagery. The paper examines the genre from artistic antecedents to the latest AI images, and then proceeds to some Hungarian and Romanian examples.

Contribution long abstract:

The power of visuality in our post-literate global technical age is stronger than ever. Contrary to the general demand of PC-ness, masculine and feminine beauty ideals still dominate the mainstream visual environment. A specific branch of this imagery, serving personal or communal identity expressions or marketing purposes, seems to have recently seen a resurgence, using ethnic and folk art props as a means of nostalgic references to ethnicity in various forms of visual art, from social media photos to advertising, from fashion to entertainment industry and the latest dream imagery of artificial intelligence. The pursuit of polished perfection, imaginative hybridity and exaggerated pomp rather than realism and authenticity is evident. The paper briefly examines the meaning, iconography and style of bucolic folk beauty portraits from their long-run artistic antecedents to the latest AI images, and then proceeds to an analysis of some recent Hungarian and Romanian examples.