Peace and tranquility in the age of mechanical reproduction

Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” moves between analyses of several creative mediums- from woodcutting to lithography, to painting to film. These mediums each have their own unique qualities that allow for reproduction, and because of this are viewed on different planes and places in the art world. Benjamin identified the advent of photography as the impetus for debate that looks at the reproducibility of an object that is inherently a refraction of the original. Though a photograph may seem the most tangible representation of the truth and yet, by the very nature of the process, it is an inversion of the image, let alone the factors that play into the set up of the shot. Photographic reproductions also come into play when thinking about the methods of reproduction that are employed. When thinking about postmodern art, the reassignment of objects, their essence and meaning, plays a large role in the presentation of the artwork. The original object, whether it is Jeff Koons and his basketballs in a glass case-Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Two Dr J Silver Series, Spalding NBA Tip-Off) , Sherrie Levine taking pictures of famous photographs and presenting them with such titles as After Walker Evens #13, or even Andy Warhols Brillo boxes made to look exactly like the product, the recontextualization of the original intention of the object provides a great dialogue. (There is a great Andy Warhol exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, with a lot of stuff from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburg, I highly recommend it) Whether they are commodity critics or anti-aesthetes, some postmodern artists are aware of the modes of reproduction available in their work. They revel in this fact, and employ methods that both critique and rely on these techniques.
I would like to make an argument, tying in Benjamins assertions of art and mechanical reproduction, to look at an artist who in no way, shape, or form would be considered postmodern, and is in fact does not fall into any high art categories- Thomas Kinkade. If the cockles of your heart have not yet been warmed by his beautifully tranquil cottage scenes, or the magnificent renderings of light at dusk, please peruse his website. Thomas Kinkade Apart from the accessibility of the object of his art, Kinkade is also the ultimate in mass reproduction. His art sells in his own, individually managed retail stores. There are levels that a collector or his art can attain, depending on how many Kinkades one owns. The process of Kinkades work is where the reproducibility comes into play. An original, painted by the artist will fetch a good amount of money, though for the consumer, unable to drop that kind of dough, Kinkade has an army of trained highlighters who paint some colors, mostly accentual, onto poster prints of the work. These are ostensibly cheaper, and yet are a big part of the Kinkades goals of having his work present in each and every American household. There are echoes of this sort of process in Benjamins discussion of mechanical reproduction, when he states, the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility (224). In a very postmodern moment, in 2001, a community was built in Vallejo, California, with homes modeled after and furnished and decorated with the work of Thomas Kinkade. For about $425,000 (in 2001) you could buy a property in this Kinkade village and live in perfect tranquility, as if you were actually a part of the art work.