Walter Benjamin and Andy Warhol

In the beginnings of art and throughout early art eras, before major technological advances were made, the only way to see a piece of art was to travel to it in person, to behold the artwork itself with one’s own eyes. As humanity started to make major innovations regarding technology, such as the camera and the printing press, then people could see famous works of art in their own homes and in the paper, or even as computers and the internet came about, people could search up a piece of art in seconds. Some may argue that the value and/or aura of a piece has been diminished by these technological innovations, but one person in particular was able to prove this wrong. Andy Warhol, a prominent pop artist of the 20^thcentury, used mechanical process such as silk screening, photography, and film to create his art pieces, and he was able to sell them for thousands of dollars each. He also used images that were already known to the public, such as those of celebrities like Marylin Monroe and Elvis Presley, and made them into something new and different in mass quantities, which too were praised and purchased for large sums of money. 

            In Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” he mentions the bourgeoisie, the owner/ producer, and the proletariat, the maker, in a context that largely separates the two classes. Andy Warhol is an example of an artist who was able to combine the two because he had the bourgeoisie side of owning essentially an empire with workers who could produce art with his name on it, and the proletariat side of still being involved in creating the ideas behind his pieces. In the documentary on Andy Warhol, it was mentioned that it was not the actual paintings of the soup cans, but the idea of painting the soup cans that made Warhol stand out in his craft. 

            With regard to Warhol’s use of the mechanical reproduction of his pieces, the easiness of the process of taking a photograph for the initial image and copying it many times over seemed to contradict everything that the fine arts were built upon. Benjamin would agree with Warhol’s critics because he thought that “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.” This relates to what Benjamin calls an “aura” because there is a form of detachment between the artist and the art due to the reproduction of it using machinery, causing the aura of the work/ piece itself to be different than if only one was made by the artist by hand rather than using a silk screen like Warhol. 

            However, the accessibility of people around the world to a particular piece of art increases immensely with mechanical reproduction. It is both a fast and easy process, which allows for a larger amount of people to have the opportunity to both purchase pieces and admire them more widely. As Walter Benjamin puts it, “It is easier to exhibit a portrait bust that can be sent here and there than to exhibit that statue of a divinity that has its fixed place in the interior of a temple.”

            When Warhol started making films, he was asked “Andy, why are you making these films?” to which he responded “Well, it’s just easier to do than painting. The camera has a motor in it, and you just turn it on and walk away. It tapes all by itself.” This would also represent a change in aura because Warhol, who’s name would be attached to the film, actually would be quite detached from the process that art has had since the beginning of time. “Photography [, in this case, film] freed that hand of the most important artistic functions which henceforth devolved only upon the eye looking into a lens.” By an artist removing and detaching oneself from the art being made to the point where it is done simply because of ease, not for the creative spirit of the mind, the aura of it is completely destroyed. Warhol would disagree, and would even create his own definition of aura, because his art was not supposed to have important any themes or statements, for Warhol thought that “if it doesn’t make any sense, it’s art.” To Warhol, aura was not within the feelings his art gave or the purpose of a piece, but revolved around those who inspired or were featured in a piece of art, or the celebrities that starred in his films. Therefore, by this definition, Warhol’s artwork was teeming with aura, even through its mechanical reproduction and his absence in much of its creation.