Read the Walter Benjamin's essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'. Write a 300 word analysis of one work of Graphic Design, that you think relates to the themes of the text, and employing quotes, concepts and terminology from the text.
Benjamin states that any piece of art can be reproduced by
those that created it to start with. They have the ability and the eye to
reproduce what they initially created.
‘In principle a work of art has always been
reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men.’
Benjamin talks about the value of art and how reproduction
can make art worthless. Original pieces of art work are very expensive and it
could be said that some are priceless. When we create reproductions of original
pieces of art, we are taking away their value. Who would feel the need to spend
thousands of pounds on a painting when you could buy a replica for a percentage
of the price?
This means that art is becoming more accessible to everyone
whereas before it was just the wealthy people. This would not only affect
pieces of art but art overall as there would no longer be anything special
about it. This happens a lot with products these days, not just pieces of art.
Designer clothing is often reproduced to a poorer quality which makes it
cheaper, but sometimes you couldn’t even tell the difference.
An example of this within Graphic Design would be the ‘Keep
calm and carry on’ posters. These have been massively reproduced all over the
world. People have begun to create their own versions of the poster, which are
then reproduced. This takes away the value of the originals of which are worth
around about £1000 each. It was believed that the originals were destroyed
after the war but since then some have been found, from which they were then
reproduced. Although the originals are still worth a fair bit of money, the
value has dropped dramatically as it is now so easy to get hold of a replica.
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