Portrait without a face, face without a portrait: The art of portraiture in contemporary times navigates between these opposing poles. Contemporary artists explore the boundaries of a genre that seems more tied to its natural model than any other. Current art confronts viewers with forms of portraiture that would hardly have been categorized as likenesses a hundred years ago. Artistic strategies range from mechanical representation techniques to the abandonment of figuration. The image of the human individual is often realized outside of classical artistic genres and frequently forgoes mimetic similarity. Using examples of artistic positions from the late 20th century, Petra Gördüren analyzes portrait- and genre-critical qualities of both figurative and non-figurative likenesses. Selected works by Marc Quinn and Christian Boltanski.