Questioning "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction": A Stroll around the Louvre after Reading Benjamin1

In this article I claim that Walter Benjaminʹs essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" merits renewed critical attention. Just as Dada had confronted art with anti-art, so Benjamin hoped his essay would confront aesthetics with an anti-aesthetic. I examine Benjaminʹs capsule history of the aura and show it to be misleading, criticize the essayʹs underdeveloped ontology of painting and sketch an alternative, and draw attention to the surprising proximity of Benjaminʹs notion of value to that of neoliberal thought. I conclude with a critique of Benjaminʹs cultural politics.