Week 3 The Aura
van Gogh, Vincent . The Starry Night. 1889, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Reading "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" has really opened my eyes to how mechanical reproduction has impacted the art industry. To quote Walter Benjamin, "The uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being embedded in the fabric of tradition" Arts traditions give the art its value, as it is the culmination of decades of experimentation and passing down methods. Not only this, but certain charms and imperfections of the original are lost in a reprint. A great example of this are pieces that use impasto, such as Vincent van Goghs "Starry Night". Impasto is a technique that uses thick brush strokes, whose depth can be seen throughout the piece, Yet in many reprints of impasto pieces, the quality that made them more visually dynamic is lost. All of the small imperfections and techniques used to make the original give it an "aurora...
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