One of the most confusing piece of artwork that I have seen is one in which the artist claims his/her framed piece of white paper is a work of art. What exactly is the meaning behind the artwork is essentially personal to each and every person. As opposed to focusing on the history of an artwork as stated by Walter Benjamin, I think nowadays people who go to museums and galleries focus more on the meaning of an artwork rather than how it was constructed and painted. This is quite disappointing because an artist devotes a long period of time to create his/her work yet people do not see that. Quite fortunately, I think that the media has allowed us to view an artist’s work process through videos that artists film on YouTube and Instagram.
I agree with Benjamin’s statement that manual reproduction has allowed artworks to be mass produced and branded all over the world. Many famous art pieces are reproduced massively and sold in markets, online, and etc. The results of this is either positive or negative depending on how you view this phenomenon. On the positive side, mass producing a piece of artwork allows the artist’s work to be known by more people. On the other hand, this might decrease the value of an artwork through mass production. Either way, I think that the benefits outweighs the negatives.
