Walter Benjamin wrote “The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction” in 1936, and it has remained an important piece of
criticism ever since. Benjamin writes that because of the availability to
reproduce art, even in such medias as photography and cinema, the meaning and
cultural context of the original art become lost. In relation to the mechanical
reproduction of visual art, Benjamin is critical, writing that “First, process
reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction. […]
Secondly, technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into
situations which would be out of reach for the original itself.” By this he
means that reproduction of art displaces the art, taking it both out of its
original context of where and how it should be viewed. Therefore, the meaning
of the art in relation to the viewer is changed and distorted. This brings in to
question the authenticity of artwork that is now mass produced, as well as its
influence on the viewer being dependent on where it was viewed and not what is
actually being portrayed through art.
An example of this would be the mechanical reproduction of
Monet’s “Water Lilies”. I have seen several different of Monet’s classic
paintings in textbooks throughout my time in school; however I have never seen
them in person. By viewing them only as a reprinted, smaller image in a
textbook, or online as I google searched this, I am removed from the
authenticity of the original intention of the painting as Monet would have
wanted.
(MoMA "Water Lilies")
No comments:
Post a Comment