Walter Benjamin’s essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" has become one of the landmark texts in the field of cultural theory. Benjamin was a fringe member of a highly influential group of German intellectuals in the 1930s known collectively as the Frankfurt School; this group is credited in large part with raising media and social criticism to a level of art consistent with the creative works to which they applied their theories strongly influenced by Marxist philosophy. Benjamin’s essay is arguably the most famous single piece associated with the founding era of the Frankfurt School if not necessarily the most influential.
The essay examines the fundamental change brought to the world of art by the twentieth century: the easy facilitation of reproduction. The value of artworks in the past was primarily centered upon their unique status. The Mona Lisa or the statue of David could be reproduced, but not at a rate and quality making it economically feasible. Therefore the value of any piece of work was inextricably tied to the aura of its authenticity. With the ability to more easily reproduce works of art, art lost much of its ritualistic significance and its value shifted from the aura of authenticity to its value as reproducible product.
Benjamin’s central contention in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” is that the capacity to make exact reproductions of art indistinguishable from the original to any but a trained expert has resulted in an ideological shift in the place art has in society. The value of art no longer resides in it cult qualities of being unique, but within its status as exhibition.
