Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Walter Benjamin famously argued that the mass public of the twentieth century would necessarily correlate with a newly politicized art. But the world has changed considerably since Benjamin’s article was written, as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer already were assessing less than a decade later. I...

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Autor principal:	Emison Patricia Anne
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Sciendo 2021
Materias:	benjamin horkheimer adorno authenticity aura advertising mass public museums film chaplin picasso goldsworthy kentridge technology irreverence Fine Arts N
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/817dd7e94f4843779a173e79c1b647e9
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:817dd7e94f4843779a173e79c1b647e9
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:817dd7e94f4843779a173e79c1b647e92021-12-05T14:11:08ZArt, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction1822-454710.2478/mik-2021-0001https://doaj.org/article/817dd7e94f4843779a173e79c1b647e92021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.2478/mik-2021-0001https://doaj.org/toc/1822-4547Walter Benjamin famously argued that the mass public of the twentieth century would necessarily correlate with a newly politicized art. But the world has changed considerably since Benjamin’s article was written, as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer already were assessing less than a decade later. It is the purpose of this article to examine how the aesthetics of the Frankfurt school, though frequently still invoked, have lost some of their immediate relevance. The anti-establishment phase of the 60s, compounded by a pronounced taste for irony, rendered aura and exhibition outmoded values, while on the other hand, more recently, price escalation in the art market and digitization have made certain of the Frankfurt school arguments more pertinent than ever. Taking as examples Goldsworthy and Kentridge, this essay argues that a deliberate loosening of the artist’s control over both medium and reception displaces the warmed-over religious responses endorsed by Benjamin, positing instead increased intellectual agency on the part of viewers, whose identity as a mass public has become newly complicated.Emison Patricia AnneSciendoarticlebenjaminhorkheimeradornoauthenticityauraadvertisingmass publicmuseumsfilmchaplinpicassogoldsworthykentridgetechnologyirreverenceFine ArtsNENMeno Istorija ir Kritika, Vol 17, Iss 1, Pp 5-16 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	benjamin horkheimer adorno authenticity aura advertising mass public museums film chaplin picasso goldsworthy kentridge technology irreverence Fine Arts N
spellingShingle	benjamin horkheimer adorno authenticity aura advertising mass public museums film chaplin picasso goldsworthy kentridge technology irreverence Fine Arts N Emison Patricia Anne Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction
description	Walter Benjamin famously argued that the mass public of the twentieth century would necessarily correlate with a newly politicized art. But the world has changed considerably since Benjamin’s article was written, as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer already were assessing less than a decade later. It is the purpose of this article to examine how the aesthetics of the Frankfurt school, though frequently still invoked, have lost some of their immediate relevance. The anti-establishment phase of the 60s, compounded by a pronounced taste for irony, rendered aura and exhibition outmoded values, while on the other hand, more recently, price escalation in the art market and digitization have made certain of the Frankfurt school arguments more pertinent than ever. Taking as examples Goldsworthy and Kentridge, this essay argues that a deliberate loosening of the artist’s control over both medium and reception displaces the warmed-over religious responses endorsed by Benjamin, positing instead increased intellectual agency on the part of viewers, whose identity as a mass public has become newly complicated.
format	article
author	Emison Patricia Anne
author_facet	Emison Patricia Anne
author_sort	Emison Patricia Anne
title	Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction
title_short	Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction
title_full	Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction
title_fullStr	Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction
title_full_unstemmed	Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction
title_sort	art, aura, and admiration in the age of digital reproduction
publisher	Sciendo
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/817dd7e94f4843779a173e79c1b647e9
work_keys_str_mv	AT emisonpatriciaanne artauraandadmirationintheageofdigitalreproduction
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Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction

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