Walter
Benjamin said “To an ever greater degree
the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for
reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any
number of prints; to ask for the
authentic print makes no
sense.” Concerning art and the new age of digital design and manufacture I
disagree with him.
For example, Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica
(1937) would have to be, in my opinion, one of the most impressive paintings in
the world. However if you were to see a print or a copy of it, or even a
picture of it on the internet, there is now way you would really be able to appreciate
it for what it really is. We need originals because when we see them in person
we feel their aura, and aura is probably the most important thing about the
original. You can see for you self every brush stroke, all the time and effort
that went into producing the painting, that is what makes it so impressive. With
a print you don’t get that link, the feeling of how much time went into the
work. With an original photograph it’s slightly different but because you know
that the artist is directly and entirely responsible for this work, so you
still get that sense of aura.
