The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths

by Rosalind E. Krauss

Co-founder and co-editor of October magazine, a veteran of Artforum of the 1960s and early 1970s, Rosalind Krauss has presided over and shared in the major formulation of the theory of postmodernism.

In this challenging collection of fifteen essays, most of which originally appeared in October, she explores the ways in which the break in style that produced postmodernism has forced a change in our various understandings of twentieth-century art, beginning with the almost mythic idea of the avant-garde. Krauss uses the analytical tools of semiology, structuralism, and poststructuralism to reveal new meanings in the visual arts and to critique the way other prominent practitioners of art and literary history write about art. In two sections, "Modernist Myths" and "Toward Postmodernism," her essays range from the problem of the grid in painting and the unity of Giacometti's sculpture to the works of Jackson Pollock, Sol Lewitt, and Richard Serra, and observations about major trends in contemporary literary criticism.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Essays, Theory, Philosophy, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

American art critic, professor, and theorist who is based at Columbia University, teaching Modern Art and Theory.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read and marked this book again and again until any given page looks like a war zone. Which is not unrelated to Krauss's view of the world of modern art. There is scarcely an inch of the modern-art pond this woman has been unwilling to swim, and piss in.

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps some of my favorite pieces of Krauss in here; "Grids" & "Sculpture in the Expanded Field". Again my students are reading select parts from this in a course I am currently teaching.

[Cèilidh Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

sections read: modernist myths

Read this as for research for my thesis, seeing as everything else I was reading just kept referencing this book, was very insightful, easy to understand and often witty.

[Borja Delgado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy guay. El ensayo que más me ha gustado es 'Se acabó el juego'. Hace una crítica muy interesante a las posturas historicista sobre el arte, y defiende una aproximación estructuralista y posestructuralista de la crítica artística. Desmitifica los grandes relatos de la modernidad.

[Clara Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

De lo mejor que he leído.

[yuefei · Rating 4 out of 5]

dense, challenging, somehow still relevant (in many aspects, not all). Probs gonna buy it to read over and over again

[CrazyBug456 · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3,5

[Andy Dávila · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read most of it (though did not have time to read all of it), and i feel like Krauss’s writings rewired my brain …

very dense but very interesting

[sang ooh · Rating 5 out of 5]

前卫的原创性和其它现代主义的神话
曾以为晦涩的，现在已是寻常，私以为美国能赢得“后现代”，全靠“作者性”，如此信奉“作者性”的国家再也没有了。

[lalala Manel]

Pensar é difícil

[Jacob Vorstrup Goldman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep and thoughtful book.

[dinni tresnadewi]

Haven't really read through all of it, but I found it very comprehensive in informing much about modern and post-modern art. If you write a review of an artwork, or perhaps a contemporary art critic, this book is the best companion to be...

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

oy.

[A L]

She is one powerful theorist.