Her key move is to replace the old definition of a medium (a physical material like paint or stone) with a new one: Borrowing from the film theory of Stanley Cavell and the phenomenological tradition of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Krauss defines a medium not by its substance but by the automated, repeatable, technical apparatus that produces a specific type of aesthetic experience.
Rosalind Krauss (1941– ) is one of the most significant and provocative art critics and theorists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. A co-founder of the journal October , she challenged the formalist orthodoxy of Clement Greenberg and later pioneered the study of postmodernism, surrealism, and the expanded field of sculpture. Her essay “Reinventing the Medium” (published in Critical Inquiry , Vol. 25, No. 2, Winter 1999) stands as a cornerstone of her later work, directly addressing a crisis in contemporary art: the death of traditional artistic media. The Central Argument: From Support to Technical Support Krauss begins with a provocative diagnosis. By the 1990s, the traditional notion of a medium—oil painting, bronze sculpture, etching—had collapsed under the weight of postmodern pastiche, installation art, and digital reproduction. Artists no longer seemed committed to a specific material craft. However, Krauss argues that this does not mean the end of the medium itself. Instead, she calls for its reinvention .
Her key move is to replace the old definition of a medium (a physical material like paint or stone) with a new one: Borrowing from the film theory of Stanley Cavell and the phenomenological tradition of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Krauss defines a medium not by its substance but by the automated, repeatable, technical apparatus that produces a specific type of aesthetic experience.
Rosalind Krauss (1941– ) is one of the most significant and provocative art critics and theorists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. A co-founder of the journal October , she challenged the formalist orthodoxy of Clement Greenberg and later pioneered the study of postmodernism, surrealism, and the expanded field of sculpture. Her essay “Reinventing the Medium” (published in Critical Inquiry , Vol. 25, No. 2, Winter 1999) stands as a cornerstone of her later work, directly addressing a crisis in contemporary art: the death of traditional artistic media. The Central Argument: From Support to Technical Support Krauss begins with a provocative diagnosis. By the 1990s, the traditional notion of a medium—oil painting, bronze sculpture, etching—had collapsed under the weight of postmodern pastiche, installation art, and digital reproduction. Artists no longer seemed committed to a specific material craft. However, Krauss argues that this does not mean the end of the medium itself. Instead, she calls for its reinvention .
