Abstract: This article analyzes the impact of the visual images of well-being upon interpretation of the concept of well-being in consumer culture. The object of this research is the paintings by postmodern artists, constructivists. and hyperrealists – A. Warhol, R. Rauschenberg, J. Jones, L. Lawler, T. Matin, as well as the posters of advertising constructors of A. Rodchenko. Examination is conducted on the artworks, since the time horizon of paintings is not limited to the “here and now”. The author discusses the images from semiotic and hermeneutical perspectives, which allow revealing the content of meanings expressed in the visual form. Artistic images become the object of research in the field of visual semiotics. The scientific novelty consists in the comprehensive socio-philosophical research of the process of creation, proliferation, and inverting meanings in the visual discourse on well-being. The article employs philosophical, rather than art history discourse. As a result, the author establishes correlation between visual images, social culture, and social conventions. The conclusion is made that the visual images of well-being emphasize the social component of well-being, dictate the logic of public consumption, and manipulate collective consciousness. Visual images become the markers of social well-being, translators of the myths on consumer culture, delicately manipulating the constructed Self.

Abstract:  
This article present an interpretation of M. Heidegger’s thesis “The Origin of the Work of Art”. Being a part of the world and having originated from it, art was always a topic of interest for the philosophers, who try to find answers to the questions “Is there truth in art?” and “How to understand the works of visual art? The author finds the key to the mystery of art in polemics of the prominent art historian M. Shapiro and philosopher M. Heidegger. In this dispute, the notions of the truth and existence (ontological field) are counterpoised to the historical and biographical details of createdness of the painting. The subject of dispute lies in Van Gogh’s painting “A Pair of Shoes”. In interpretation of the painting, M. Heidegger analyzes how it reveals the nature of the shoes. And, thanks to the rich imagination, audience through the creation of an art work, reveals the truth. Trying on the country woman’s shoes, the audience pictures her being; and the artist attempt to attract attention and cognize the truth with help of the createdness. M. Shapiro focuses attention on the historical component of the paintings and biographical motives of the artist. It originates a question, which of the aspects, namely, visual documental information or art (associations, feelings, emotions, projections) are closer to the ontological understanding of the painting as a painting. The author concludes that if a creative component is present, it moves the biographical motives and historical details to the background. Ontological understanding of the painting is possible only in aesthetic field.