The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction

Correction

Benjamin

Marx

Base and Superstructure

Historical Materialism

Political Economy

Marcuse

1. There is a definite connection between art and the material base, between art and the totality of the relations of production. With the change in production relations, art itself is transformed as part of the superstructure, although, like other ideologies, it can lag behind or anticipate social change.

2. There is a definite connection between art and social class. The only authentic, true, progressive art is the art of an ascending class. It expresses the consciousness of this class.

3. Consequently, the political and the aesthetic, the revolutionary content and the artistic quality tend to coincide.

4. The writer has an obligation to articulate and express the interests and needs of the ascending class. (In capitalism, this would be the proletariat.)

5. A declining class or its representatives are unable to produce anything but decadent art.

6. Realism (in various senses) is considered as the art form which corresponds most adequately to the social relationships, and thus is the “correct” art form.

- Herbert Marcuse, from The Aesthetic Dimension

Aura

Aura

Aura

Monet vs. Klimt

Aura?

Riefenstahl

Montage


Digital Reproduction