In class this week, we read “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” by Walter Benjamin. This looked at art throughout history and the reproduction of art and how over the course of history, that has changed and developed. The forms of art mainly touched on were paintings, photographs, and films. Benjamin played with the idea of authenticity and what that means in the art world. What makes something authentic and what does that mean?
If something is authentic, then it means that it is genuine. An authentic painting is the original. This give this thing great value, especially in the world or paintings and sculptures. Painting’s today are easily replicable though. With the technology we have today, we can make things that look identical to the original but are not the original. The value of the thing being replicated can differ greatly based on the quality of the replication. Even though it may look close to identical, the quality may be worse based on materials used and such. The biggest thing that is different about these replications and authentic copies of these pieces is the value. An authentic, or original piece of art has a much greater value than that of the replicants. Think about the Monalisa for example. It is possibly one of the most replicated pieces of art in the world. Think of all of the times you have seen the Monalisa in your life. The question becomes tricky because most have seen replicant’s of the Monalisa hundreds, if not thousands of times. Yet some have only seen the real thing only a couple of times, and most have likely never seen the authentic Mona Lisa, and only know it from its replicants. The authentic Mona Lisa becomes very underwhelming when one sees it in the Louvre in Paris. It is only a small painting in a large room full of other people trying to sneak a peak of this famous work, that everyone has already seen hundreds of copies of. The reproduction of this piece has made seeing the real thing not much of a spectacle. Yet the value of the original is much greater than the value of any reproduction. And most people cannot identify many, if any, differences between the authentic Mona Lisa from most replicas. But knowing that is the authentic one in this famous museum in Paris behind a thick sheet of glass, gives it a value that no replica will ever be able to replicate.
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteI like how you focused your post on “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” by Walter Benjamin because I enjoyed this reading a lot. Your post about authenticity and the culture of art made me think of this quote from last class, “In principle a work of art has always been reproducible” (Benjamin, p.38). I agree when you said how it’s interesting looking back on art throughout history and the reproduction and development of it. Famous painting such as the Mona Lisa or Starry Night give the art world exposure but with paintings so famous throughout society for decades, the reproduction of the actual art itself I feel takes a toll on the appreciation of the art. For example, I saw the Mona Lisa in person at the Louvre and was surprisingly disappointed. I was disappointed with the fact that I had seen it so many times before where it look almost identical to the original, however when I saw the original, it was extremely small in size and the population looking at it was so chaotic that it took away from the experience. Since this painting was the original, it was authentic, which made the experience pleasant but I believe that the reproduction of such art pieces takes away from the experience because with the advances in technology we have today, the quality of the replicas look identical to the real thing but closer up. If the quality of the replicas had less quality, I think it would draw more attention to the authentic, original painting. This also ties into the quote, “…technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach of the original itself” (Benjamin, p. 39). Although, the experience of seeing the Mona Lisa was a little disappointing, I agree with you in the fact that the feeling you experience when viewing the original painting gives you that feeling out authenticity that no replica could reproduce.