In this essay each image reproduced has become part of an argument which has little or nothing to do with the painting's original independent meaning . . . Consequently a reproduction, as well as making its own references to the image of its original, becomes itself the reference point for other images. Berger comments on the use of bulletin boards which people use to pin up photos, art postcards, etc. Logically, these boards should replace art museums. Reproduction isolates a detail of a painting from the whole.
All conflict disappears . . .
But there is the evidence in the paintings themselves . . The art of the past no longer exits as it once did. Its authority is lost. In its place there is a language of images. What matters now is who uses that language for what purpose.