Journal | Venezia Arti
Journal issue | 30 | 2021
Research Article | Fake or Fortune? Alexander Dorner and the Weimar Reproductions Debate
Fake or Fortune? Alexander Dorner and the Weimar Reproductions Debate
Abstract
Between 1929 and 1930 the Der Kreis journal hosted a debate among art historians and museum directors on how art copies were changing the museum landscape. The so-called Hamburger Faksimile-Streit constitutes a crucial moment in the Weimarian theoretical debate on the categories of copy and original, culminating a few years later in Benjamin’s well-known essay on the work of art. After examining the theses of the main participants in the debate, this article focus on the position of curator and museum director Alexander Dorner – the only one advocating for the non-superiority of originals over copies in art museums – and on his relationship with Walter Benjamin’s later theories.
Submitted: July 9, 2021 | Accepted: Aug. 24, 2021 | Published Dec. 21, 2021 | Language: en
Keywords Weimar Art Theory • Alexander Dorner • Hamburger Faksimile-Streit • Art copies • Museum Studies
Copyright © 2021 Camilla Balbi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/VA/2385-2720/2021/07/006
