Digital Reproductions Of Kinkade's Art example essay topic

Reproduction Businesses of Thomas Kinkade's painting When I read the article by Susan Or lean, I am very aware of the big business Thomas Kinkade is trying to create by reproducing his original paintings mechanically using digital technique, but I have also carefully examined whether this article which discusses about the reproduction of his art works has a correlation with Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". A certain emotion or an "aura" is said to be present when an artist creates an art work. However, some of the reproduction pieces inside Kinkade's signature gallery are highlighted by his specially trained assistant; I believe these paintings are no longer evoking this so-called "aura" of the original work. Aura is something that cannot be duplicated. Reproductions of art pieces are simply tangible and concrete object.

They are digital imitations that "could be soaked in water, peeled off the paper, and affixed to a stretched canvas, so that it showed the texture of the canvas the way a real painting would". As Benjamin stated, .".. 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". The original paintings have their own unique characters and history, and these are not the things that art reproductions can generate. 'The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.

' To recreate an original masterpiece such as Kinkade's "Julianne's Cottage", and to print it onto the canvas takes away its original beauty and changes it into an everyday, insignificant object. Although highlights of the paintings are done to entails stippling paint dots to give an image "more texture and luminescence", but Glenda, one of the highlighter mentioned in the article would even allow customers to perform the highlights themselves, these reproductions are no longer authentic, it is the unique involvement that is counted significant by the public to make the painting "truly one-of-a-kind". Kinkade's business world is marketing businesses with the recreations of his art paintings that can provide continuing supplies "in the pursuit of gain" discussed by Benjamin. In my opinion, the digital reproductions of Kinkade's art works are not intended for political or even social action, but for economic action. The sensation of "absent-minded" is also apparent when the customers at Kinkade's signature gallery are trying to engage themselves in the art world of Kinkade's paintings. They are distracted by how popular the paintings are with Kinkade's signatures on them and react with the emotions the whole gallery atmosphere creates.

Their state of mind is focused on the name of Kinkade and his biography but not the imperative aspects of his art works. For example, when the customers respond when they bought one of the reproductions from Kinkade, .".. he's just this really huge thing! It's almost like a whole world". ; .".. Here the clock says five-o-two, which is Thom and Nanette's wedding date... 'NK' - that's for his wife...

". It is rather confusing to me whether the customers are buying an art work they akin to or simply because of the popular name and the auto-pen signature by Kinkade in the lower right-hand corner of the reproduced painting. Digital reproduction can bring new elements to the process diffusing art. First of all, people can reproduce the work so quickly, the paintings available in Kinkade's signature gallery range from few hundreds to several thousands dollars; second, people can make many copies of one certain art work and continue making profit revenues, such as the "all but two Thomas Kinkade galleries are now owned by franchisees"; third, reproductions create capacity for buyers or users to manipulate the art work and control the context of viewing, for instance, customers can dab highlight paints onto the reprinted pictures themselves or the "five thousand retail outlets that sell Kinkade-licensed products, including cards, puzzles, mugs, blankets, books... ".

All these changes have revolutionized the traditional essential view of an art work by an artist that is considered huge and popular such as Kinkade. One might say the importance of an artist in this case has diminished, but most of the customers mentioned in the article came to buy the reproduced paintings purely because of the well-known status of Kinkade's identity, .".. wherever Kinkade appears, customers buy pictures", also, all the staffs working in Kinkade's gallery know his biography by heart; people that show up in his gallery would cry and talk emotionally to Kinkade saying that, "here's how you have affected me". I believe the importance of the art painting itself has been reduced. As the last part of the article shows, the man in the gallery was rather surprised how the highlight of a tree in "Clock-tower Cottage" transformed the tree into an out-stood dimension and claimed that he "hadn't even noticed that before". Benjamin argued that the age of mechanical reproduction changed not only our esthetic experience with art, but also its political functions, its commodity value, and the social relations constructed around it. The art work on the computer can be replicated a hundred or a million times, each copy being perfectly identical.

Just as all the picture supplies in Kinkade's gallery, or the retail products in the outlets, these reproductions could appear and disappear at a simple movement of business markets. As Benjamin points out, "the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed". Benjamin has also affirmed in his essay: "Works of art are received and valued on different planes... with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work". He believes that art should possess a moral and religious value and when it is mechanically reproduce, this value become obsolete.

When Kinkade paints, he is hoping to offer hope and comfort to people; and he believes in "picture-making for people". This determination of his has somehow succeed because his art works became enormously well-liked and admired by the public; also, I think the reproductions of his paintings still carry the exhibition value in his art galleries. Although his originals are no more available but transitionally, the public can still appreciate his paintings, although they are mechanically reproduced. I think this is a main contribution Kinkade's art has made for the benefits of the public..