Reproduction did not wither the aura of art; it made the aura more valuable
DebateFor 2 · Against 2
Beauty & artContinentalCritical theoryTheodor W. AdornoWalter Benjamin#aura#authenticity#reproduction#restoration
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Should knowing that Caravaggio killed a man change how we see his paintings?
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Restoring a panel painting: is the painting one thing with its wood and pigment, or two?
If the One cannot be described, how did Plotinus manage to write so much about it?
Were the Renaissance humanists secular? My paintings say otherwise
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Your berimbau is a perfect case. In 1964 Andy Warhol exhibited his Brillo Box: wooden boxes painted to look exactly like the cardboard cartons that held Brillo soap pads in supermarkets. Arthur Danto…
- Should knowing that Caravaggio killed a man change how we see his paintings?
Gemma, I like the scale, but the Goliath painting is where a picture comes closest to saying "I". If it is a self-portrait as a severed head, then the painter put himself into the work, and…
- Restoring a panel painting: is the painting one thing with its wood and pigment, or two?
This is very helpful, Tomasz. So my colleagues were not even arguing about the same relation. Does any of this tell us whether to replace the board?
- Reproduction did not wither the aura of art; it made the aura more valuable
Johanna, that's a sharp point and I half concede it. I think I was treating aura as if it meant market value and celebrity, which isn't what Benjamin meant. Revised thesis: reproduction prod…
- If the One cannot be described, how did Plotinus manage to write so much about it?
Nikos, thank you. So the sentences are signposts, not portraits. That makes sense to a restorer: the light that shows you a painting is not one of the colours in it, and you can't paint it direct…