The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (German: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit; 1935), by Walter Benjamin, is an essay of cultural criticism which proposes and explains that mechanical reproduction devalues the aura (uniqueness) of a work of art, and that in the age of mechanical reproduction and the absence of traditional and ritualistic values, the production of art would be inherently based upon the praxis of politics.

The essay was written during the Nazi régime (1933–1945) in Germany. Its first draft was composed in 1935 during the year that the Nuremberg Race Laws were passed in the Third Reich and Leni Riefenstahl's film documentary of the Nuremberg Rally (Triumph of the Will) debuted to critical praise, sweeping the film awards across Europe. The essay presents a theory of art that is "useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art" in a mass culture. It remains a prophetic and trenchantly anti-fascist manifesto, instructing readers in the interpretation of mass cultural forms inclined towards the fertilization and acceleration of totalitarianism.

Benjamin's essay is concerned with several ideas: the aura of a work of art; the artistic authenticity of the artefact; the cultural authority of the work of art; and the aestheticization of politics for the production of art. As a result, it has become a foundational theoretical resource in the fields of art history and architectural theory, cultural studies, and media theory.