Everyone should own art
Insider #91 on personal value > popular value
Note: This is one part of a series of posts on the essay by Walter Benjamin. Read here: The Role of Art in the Age of 'Virtual Reproduction' | The Concept of Aura | What is Art keeps changing | Free Contemplation of Art | Freewriting | Everyone should own art
Dear Insider,
The first time I set up a stall to sell my work, it was next to the Phoenix Park Farmer’s Market, in Eau Claire Wisconsin. So it was my task to lure people - who had come out on Saturday morning to buy fruits, vegetables, and cheeses - into buying my art too.
What a strange job, I thought to myself. And, can I do this?
I was surprised and delighted by the first sales. Handing over a print, watching them slip it into their backpack or slide it under their arm, I thought - What a beautiful thing this is!
Think about it. That an hour with a sketchbook was preserved in the form of a drawing. That, as a print, it had now exited my world and was entering another.
In this post, final thoughts from reading Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction and the special Insider discount for the new prints.
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A Recap
The question first occurred to me as I sat a few feet away from Vincent van Gogh’s (arguably) most popular work - Why do people still go to look at art?
Reading Walter Benjamin’s 1936 essay gave me some good ideas:
In [1], that the work of art has always been reproducible, but the ability to make infinite copies has shattered the aura of the original.
In [2], that the destruction of aura coincides with the socialist ideal of the “universal equality of things” and “the adjustment of reality to the masses”.
In [3], that changing social conditions (like the rise of hyper-individualism) also change how we see art and its role in society.
In [4], that free contemplation of art is harder than it looks, and the concept of aura can be reimagined.
In [5], that the attention economy is about creating Cult Value by aggressively colonizing our minds.
