For Krauss, the medium is not a prison but a – one whose rules are made up as we go along, but without which there is no play at all.
When “Reinventing the Medium” appeared, it was immediately controversial. Traditional modernists accused Krauss of abandoning aesthetics for logistics. Postmodernists accused her of trying to save a bourgeois category (“medium”) that deserved to die. rosalind krauss reinventing the medium pdf
Many scanned versions omit the footnotes. Krauss’s footnotes are legendary—they contain half the argument (debates with Stanley Cavell, citations of Gilles Deleuze). When downloading any PDF, ensure it includes pages 308-312 (the notes). Without them, you lose the chassis of her intellectual architecture. For Krauss, the medium is not a prison
Reinventing the Medium: Rosalind Krauss and the Post-Medium Condition Postmodernists accused her of trying to save a
An artist reinvents a medium by rediscovering or inventing a technical support and then exploring its unique formal and conceptual possibilities.
When an artist paints a canvas pure white, are they destroying painting? Krauss argues they are revealing the medium.
(if you have institutional access): JSTOR, Project MUSE, or your university library’s e-resources. The essay appears in: