Fantastic Blognanza!

For relatively old values of the word “new”, our friends over at Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction have a slew of new t-shirts you should take a gander at. Here: let me help you in your gandering pursuits with this digital reproduction of an image from their site!

Press Tee from Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Now, I’ve got to be honest with you here about something: If you click on that image and go to the shirt page on Art in the Age’s site, you will find that the man wearing that t-shirt does not look particularly excited about it. In fact, he looks a little depressed. I might go so far as to say that he is glowering.

Perhaps he is just tired after a full day’s work of slaving away at the printing presses. That’s fair, and completely understandable. But as a prospective procurer of t-shirty goodness, this image fails to move me. The photo instills many feelings in me—fear, rage, and pity, among others—but irrational consumerism is not one of them.

Anyway, the design’s the thing, and I quite like the arresting monochrome that’s going on here. While we Bonanziers tend not to be huge fans of branding/logos on t-shirts, I personally don’t have a problem with it here. I mean, when you couple the phrase “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” with the image of the printing press, it’s got meaning entirely separate from any branding purpose. It’s thought provoking! What has the advent of mechanical reproduction meant for art? What of digital reproduction in the modern age? Has it democratized art, or is art by its very nature an elitist medium? Why am I asking so many questions?

Anyway, this design has been on a baseball tee for a while, so if you want to see some of the really “new” stuff, you should just go look for your own dang self.