Rosalind Krauss Reinventing The Medium Pdf |work|
The PDF of "Reinventing the Medium" has become a valuable resource for art historians, critics, and scholars. It has also been widely cited and referenced in academic papers, articles, and books. The digital availability of the essay has helped to ensure its continued relevance and influence in the art world.
: Uses the obsolete slide-tape projection format to explore narrative ambiguity and the relationship between still and moving images.
Krauss argues that a medium is not a raw material waiting to be discovered (like a slab of marble). Instead, a medium is a set of conventions and historical accumulations. It is an "aggregation of tropes and materials." When an artist approaches a medium, they are not engaging with a blank slate; they are engaging with a history of uses, expectations, and failures.
The essay is a call to move away from the "anything goes" attitude of installation art and digital media. Krauss advocates for a return to specific, rule-bound practices that "reclaim the specific from the deadening embrace of the general". rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
: Krauss argues that traditional distinctions between artistic media (like painting or sculpture) have collapsed in the wake of postmodernism.
Rosalind Krauss's contributions to art criticism and theory are immeasurable. Her innovative ideas and groundbreaking essays have helped to shape our understanding of modern and contemporary art. "Reinventing the Medium" is just one example of her influential writing, but it is a testament to her enduring legacy.
Krauss, Reinventing The Medium (Critical Inquiry 1999) - Scribd The PDF of "Reinventing the Medium" has become
To understand "Reinventing the Medium," one must first understand the battleground upon which Krauss stands. For decades, Clement Greenberg’s theory of medium specificity dominated the discourse. Greenberg posited that for a medium to achieve "quality," it had to eliminate any effects borrowed from other mediums. Painting, therefore, had to reject the illusion of depth (sculpture) and narrative (literature) to focus entirely on the optical experience of flatness.
Krauss notes that photography converged with high art in the 1960s just as it was becoming obsolete due to digital technology. It shifted from being an aesthetic tool to a "theoretical object" used to deconstruct traditional notions of authorship and originality. Recursive Structure:
Krauss's central argument was that the medium was no longer a stable or coherent category but rather a complex and multifaceted concept that was constantly being reinvented. She saw this process of reinvention as a fundamental aspect of modern art, one that reflected the changing nature of art itself. By questioning the traditional notion of the medium, Krauss opened up new possibilities for artists to explore and create. : Uses the obsolete slide-tape projection format to
For those reading the PDF, the theoretical density becomes clearer when Krauss applies her theory to specific artists. She avoids the spectacular stars of the market to focus on artists who interrogate the nature of representation itself.
. An artist "invents" a medium by creating a recursive system where the work explores its own internal rules. Reclaiming Specificity:
You can buy temporary access to the article directly from the University of Chicago Press’s Critical Inquiry website.