“A Voyage on the North Sea”: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition

by Rosalind E. Krauss

Exploring the nature of the aesthetic medium has been at the heart of much of modern art. For exponents of high modernism, the essence of each medium lay inherently in its own particular material properties. Accordingly, the import of painting was its "flatness," as exemplified by the monochrome canvas. But some artists rejected this description as inadequate. Citing the examples of film, television, and video, they understood and articulated the medium as a complex structure of technical supports and layered conventions distinct from physical properties. Here, Rosalind Krauss positions the work of Marcel Broodthaers within this alternative narrative. Referring to the Belgian artist's films, books, graphic design, and museum "fictions," she presents Broodthaers as standing at, and thus standing for, the "complex" of the self-differing medium.

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

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 2000

About the author

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

Reviews

[Eszter · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's true that ms. krauss is perhaps a wee bit too marxist for my taste, but after reading Voyage, i am saddened when i think about the state of my life beforehand, when i didn't know much more about marcel broodthaers than that he existed, was belgian and had a thing for conceptual art and eagles. krauss' portrait of broodthaers and his part in questioning the necessity of theory and the roles of medium in art makes me want to plaster my room with pictures of him and then run to the anthology film archives and watch a forty five minute film of a slow-motion zoom in on a boat. okay, maybe not that last part, but i've definitely carved out a place in my heart for marcel. <3.

[Eline]

This is probably really good and clever and all, but i didn't understand a thing if i'm being honest

[Oleg Gerdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice conservations with the ideas of Clement Greenberg and D. Judd on art and medium.
Maybe, too much space in text to the example of certain works of a certain artist. Seems like too much play with them - thinking of mixed media leads to a mixed text :)
But ideas about film media, "phenomenological vector", fiction as media and others are interesting.

[Alen Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Читал на русском. Душный и неказистый перевод, единственное достижение которого, пожалуй, это введение в широкий русскоязычный обиход термина «постмедиальность». Удобный термин.

А что касается эссе - это классика. Многое оттуда уже нам кажется само собой разумеющимся, но на стыке веков это нельзя было очертить более лаконично и точно, чем это сделала Краусс.

[Solostand · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst art-related book that I've read in years.

[Teun Voost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yap quite good. Bit too confusing at times for someone not deep into art studies, but fun to read nontheless.

Might have to re-read at some point, 3/5 for now...

[Epifras]

Mediets självskiljande rörelse, att kunna hitta på vad en film är eller gör. Upphävandet av alla generella drag.

Monomanin. Förstörelsen av det visuella, det optiska, som något självklart.

Fiktion.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book and very interesting with the added benefit of being... erm... short. I feel like a total wuss for saying that but I seem to have had several encounters with very interesting books lately which have not been short and therefore have needed to be returned to the library before I was really ready to part with them and then I haven't been reunited with them as other things have needed to be read too. But I digress into my own failings here. This book was definitely a quick read though and I read the whole thing over 2 brief sessions. I found Krauss' style fairly easy to get into and the subject matter and her example of Broodthaers fairly clear, bearing in mind that I come from a music background rather than an art background. I do feel I need to read it again because of this - I felt like there were things that I grasped the gist of but need to spend some time with and/or return to when I have more context to really deeply understand, but overall the book has done its job which for me was as an introduction to her concept of the post-medium condition. I had come across the name of Marcel Broodthaers before but didn't know any of his work - this book has definitely made me want to seek it out and get to know it!

[Egor xS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Krauss, as always, is unbeatable. Her prose is as gripping as Arnie's in 'The Terminator' with almost flawless argumentation. However, the book's preconditioning imperative on the ontology of the medium proved somewhat relativized by her subsequent untiring lamentation against installation and participatory / relational art - while failing to complicate this arguably obsolete stance.

[Abdulaziz Lamlum · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book to understand the application of a certain style of art using different mediums