The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

1. A work of art has always been reproducible.

   • Greeks reproduced works of art:
     • Founding.
     • Stamping.

2. woodcut graphic art: became mechanically reproducible for the first time

3. 19th Century: lithography Appeared

   • Only a few decades after its invention, it was surpassed by photography.
     • Photography captured images at the speed of an actor's movements

4. Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art lacks:

   • presence in time and space
     • The authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that its transmissible from its beginning

5. Human sense perception is determined by nature and historical circunstances

6. Aura: unique phenomenon of a distance, the sensation or feeling you get by getting closer to someone or something

   • we have a tendency to reproduce things, doing it also destroys the aura

7. The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition

8. Earliest works of art originated in the service of a ritual

   • L'art pour l'art - Doing art for art's sake
   • Mechanical reproduction- Doing art for politics