The essay can be found online here.http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
As Benjamin says 'in principle a work of art has always been reproducible' and people have been reproducing artwork for years. A good example of this can been seen in the 'Keep Calm and Carry on' posters, but these reproductions seem to mock the originals, wich were used during war time, and devalued their meaning,and 'thus to cause the most profound change in their impact upon the public.'
Reproductions question the authenticity of the original but can also be a good thing as it makes a it more widely available to people who would maybe not know about or get to see the original. However as more productions are being made the aura around the original shrivels, as Benjamin says 'the authenticity of a thing is the essence of all that is transmissible from its beginning.'
However all these arguments against reproduction and how it devalues the original seem to be surrounding the works of fine art, is it ment to be inaccessible is that what the artists are aiming for, where as within graphic design is the work more open to questioning and challenge and made to be accessible to the masses, like the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' posters.
Benjamin states two ways work gains it value 'the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work', so if we remove the artwork from its place in a gallery by reproducing it and putting it on our wall, are we to say that it loses its value, should the Mona Lisa only be seen in the Louvre? If reproductions exist surely this opens up the artwork to a much wider audience who may never get to go to Paris to see the original. If not this woud create a hierarchy within the art world, like a facist state, where only the rich make the artwork and only the rich can view it, which frankly is not right.
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