Benjamin, the Image and the End of History

Abstract

In his famous 1936 essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Walter Benjamin tells us that in his time art became valued for its exhibition value instead of what he refers to as its secularised ritual or cult value. This essay makes this bold claim plausible by arguing that it means that a historicising gaze no longer has a function in the reception of art. Although this argument is supported by Benjamin’s use of the concepts of authenticity and aura, it is somehow missed by Benjamin’s many readers. His essay, as it turns out, presents an end of history thesis, which foreshadows the condition of the image in contemporary media.