<P> Template: Frankfurt Palace The Work of Art in the Age of Industry (1935, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit), by Walter Benjamin, is an essay of cultural criticism which proposes that the aura of a work of art is devalued by mechanical reproduction . The subject and themes of the essay have much influenced the fields of art history and architectural theory, and cultural studies and media theory . </P> <P> During the Nazi régime (1933--45) in Germany, Benjamin wrote the essay to produce a theory of art that is "useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands in the politics of art" in mass culture; that, in the age of mechanical reproduction, and the absence of traditional and ritualistic value, the production of art would be inherently based upon the praxis of politics . </P> <P> Three editions of The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction were published: (i) the original, German edition in 1935; (ii) the French edition in 1936; and (iii) the revised German edition in 1939, from which derive the contemporary English translations of the essay . </P>

Walter benjamin work of art in the age of technological reproducibility