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Walter Benjamin Quotes about Art

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Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.

Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Unique, Space
Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.230, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Art teaches us to see into things. Folk art and kitsch allow us to see outward from within things.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Kitsch, Teach
Walter Benjamin, Michael William Jennings, Brigid Doherty (2008). “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media”, p.209, Harvard University Press

The film is the first art form capable of demonstrating how matter plays tricks on man.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Men, Play
Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.257, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Ritual, Dependence
"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". Book by Walter Benjamin, 1939.

Not to find one's way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one's way in a city, as one loses one's way in a forest, requires some schooling. Street names must speak to the urban wanderer like the snapping of dry twigs, and little streets in the heart of the city must reflect the times of day, for him, as clearly as a mountain valley. This art I acquired rather late in life; it fulfilled a dream, of which the first traces were labyrinths on the blotting papers in my school notebooks.

Walter Benjamin
Notebook, Dream, Art
Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland, Gary Smith (2002). “Selected Writings: 1935-1938”, p.352, Harvard University Press

The art of the critic in a nutshell: to coin slogans without betraying ideas. The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion.

Walter Benjamin
Fashion, Art, Ideas
Walter Benjamin, Marcus Paul Bullock, Michael William Jennings, Howard Eiland (1996). “Selected Writings: 1913-1926”, p.460, Harvard University Press

The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Criticism, Aversion
Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.244, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Epic, Dying
Walter Benjamin (1968). “Illuminations”, p.97, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

In other words, the unique value of the "authentic" work of art has its basis in ritual, the location of its original use value. This ritualistic basis, however remote, is still recognizable as secularized ritual even in the most profane forms of the cult of beauty.

Walter Benjamin
Art, Unique, Location
Walter Benjamin (2015). “Illuminations”, p.170, Random House

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