The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths
Citation
Krauss, Rosalind E. The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985. 330 pp. ISBN 0-262-11093-8 (hardcover); ISBN 0-262-61046-9 (paperback).
Second printing: MIT Press paperback edition, 1986.
Relevance
The major essay collection by the co-founder of October journal, collecting her central theoretical statements on photography, indexicality, and modernism. The volume reprints Krauss’s “Notes on the Index: Seventies Art in America” (Parts 1 and 2, October 3 and 4, 1977 — see src-krauss-1977-notes-on-index) and “The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism” (October, Winter 1981), alongside essays on sculpture, repetition, and the grid. The indexicality argument — that photography’s essential character is indexical (a physical trace) rather than expressive — provides the theoretical counter-language to the humanist expressivism that The Family of Man embodied. This collection represents the October journal’s theoretical self-consolidation as a book, and is the standard bibliographic reference for Krauss’s photographic theory.
Tier 2: MIT Press is an academic university press. Krauss is named in CREDIBILITY.md as part of the October editorial board (implied by the Tier-2 parity argument). The October journal is explicitly named as Tier 2.
Key excerpts / pages
- Access status (2026-04-30): Internet Archive URL
https://archive.org/details/originalityofava00kraufetched (2026-04-30). Page returned HTTP 200. Metadata visible: title, author, year (1985, second printing 1986), publisher (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts), ISBN (0262110938 / 0262610469), page count (330 pp.). Full text is access-restricted (controlled digital lending) — body text NOT read in this round. - A second Internet Archive record,
https://archive.org/details/originalityofava0000krau(fetched 2026-04-30), confirmed: year 1986 (second printing), publisher MIT Press, ISBN 0262610469, 307 pages [NOTE: the two Archive.org records give different page counts — 330 and 307; the discrepancy likely reflects different editions or scanning copies; NOT resolved in this round]. - No verbatim passage from the body text quoted in this round (access-restricted).
- “Notes on the Index” reprinted in this volume: pp. 196–219 — page range carried from secondary citation in photography-theory literature; NOT verified against the book in this session.
- “The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism”: included in this volume — confirmed from Wikipedia article on Rosalind Krauss (fetched 2026-04-30); specific page range NOT verified in this round.
Notes
- The archive records confirm year, publisher, and ISBNs from a primary Internet Archive fetch in this session — these fields are
verifiedat the bibliographic-metadata level. Body-text arguments and page-level citations remainverified: false. - The collection is foundational for understanding the theoretical context within which October critics (Sekula, Crimp, Solomon-Godeau) developed their critiques of humanist photography and of The Family of Man specifically.
- Cross-reference to
src-krauss-1977-notes-on-index(the two “Notes on the Index” essays, reprinted here). Cross-reference tosrc-october-1976-founding(institutional context). Cross-reference tosrc-sekula-1981(parallel materialist critique). Cross-reference tosrc-crimp-1979-pictures(companion theoretical statement). - Cross-reference to
src-sandeen-1995(anchor for Family of Man reception history): Krauss’s theoretical framework informed the critical tradition that Sandeen situates within FoM reception. - Page-count discrepancy (330 pp. vs 307 pp.): likely reflects different editions (hardcover vs paperback, or US vs UK printings). Not resolved in this session; flagged for a future pass.
verified: false(body text): Internet Archive metadata (title, author, year, publisher, ISBNs) confirmed from a primary fetch in this round. Body text not read (access-restricted).