THE INFLUENCE OF CARICATURE ON SOCIO-POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN EUROPEAN ART

Abstract

The phenomenon of art lies in the fact that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it represents a reaction to events occurring in various spheres of human life, and the peculiarity of satirical caricature is that this reaction is almost immediate and significant in the social and political context. The purpose of the article is to examine the influence of caricature on the formation of socio-political discourse and the development of European art. The methodological basis of the research is the application of historical and comprehensive methods, relying on objectivity, systematicity, and historicism. Results. The article considers the influence of caricature on socio-political sentiments in European countries throughout the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries. The works of Ukrainian caricature artists published in the magazines Shershen, Khrin, Zabiyaka, Osa, Ukrainskyi Perets, Povstanske Kropylo, as well as works of foreign artists (William Hogarth, Eugene Delacroix, Paweł Kuczyński, Gunduz Aghayev, etc.) are analyzed. The conducted research demonstrates that caricature is one of the vectors shaping not only the direction but also the tonality of the sociopolitical discourse of European art, since caricature instantly reflects the socio-political sentiments of society and is one of the tools that shape these sentiments within the social environment. Thus, it has been shown that caricature is fully capable of directly influencing the course chosen by society and its further development. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time in Ukrainian art studies, attention is drawn to the socio-political component of caricature art against the general artistic background during the russian-Ukrainian war. The practical significance of the article lies in its motivational component, as the appearance of a research work in the academic environment devoted to the study of caricature in the context of its reaction and impact on the events in society may serve as an incentive for further research in this direction.