"Reinventing the Medium" is not merely a philosophical treatise; it is grounded in the practice of specific artists. Krauss uses her new framework to analyze artists who do not fit into the old categories.
Her target was Clement Greenberg’s formalism. Greenberg argued that each medium should purify itself (painting should be only flatness and pigment). Krauss argued the opposite: The post-medium condition allows an artist to reinvent a medium from scratch for each project.
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's focus on physical materials (like the flatness of canvas) toward "technical supports" that are discursive and historical. The Power of Obsolescence: Inspired by Walter Benjamin rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
The technical and social rules that govern how the support is used.
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Rosalind Krauss's "Reinventing the Medium" remains a vital and provocative text. It offers a powerful lens for understanding the shift from modernist to contemporary art and provides a compelling framework for analyzing the persistent, creative energy of artists working in our own "post-medium condition." "Reinventing the Medium" is not merely a philosophical
This article provides a comprehensive analysis of Krauss's groundbreaking text, exploring how she navigates the death of traditional mediums and uncovers a new, redemptive form of artistic practice. The Historical Context: The Crisis of the Medium
In the pantheon of late 20th-century art criticism, few names loom as large—or provoke as much rigorous debate—as Rosalind Krauss. A co-founder of the seminal journal October , Krauss has spent decades dismantling the formalist orthodoxies of Clement Greenberg while simultaneously carving a distinct path through post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and the philosophy of medium specificity. For students, scholars, and artists grappling with the transition from modernism to postmodernism, one essay stands as a crucial, albeit notoriously dense, milestone:
A: Largely, no. While it is relevant to digital art, the essay focuses on the 1960s convergence of art and photography. However, her student Lev Manovich applied her logic to new media. Her later work addresses digital culture more directly. Greenberg argued that each medium should purify itself
To this day, remains a cornerstone of contemporary art theory. It shapes how critics, curators, and scholars analyze work in an era of constant media upheaval. Krauss's central questions—"What is a medium?" and "How do artists create meaning through specific technical supports?"—are more relevant now than ever in a world of AI-generated art, digital photography, and NFTs.
To understand Krauss’s 1999 essay, one must look back to her 1986 essay, “The Originality of the Avant-Garde.” There, she dismantled the myth of the Romantic genius. By the late 1990s, the art world was obsessed with “interactivity” and “dematerialization.” Critics argued that digital art had no medium—only code and screens.
