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Jonathan Crary is an American art critic and essayist.[1] He is the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University.[2] His first notable works were Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century (1990), and Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture (2000).[2] He has published critical essays for more than 30 exhibition catalogues.[2] A dominant analytical theme in his work is the history of vision, observation and perception.[3][4]

Education

Crary attended high school at the Putney School in Vermont.[citation needed] He graduated from Columbia College, where he was an art history major.[2] In 1987, he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University.[2] Crary also earned a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied film and photography.[2]

Teaching

He first taught in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego.[2] In 1989, he began teaching at Columbia University full-time.[2] He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1991.[5]

Writing

Crary’s 24/7: Late Capitalism and the End of Sleep explores the nonstop pace of the modern world and its effects on human psychology and physiology, with an emphasis on sleep patterns.[6]

His Suspensions of Perception focuses on the period from about 1880 to 1905, in which Crary describes the emergence of subjective vision.[7] He also discusses how attention became a “new object within the modernization of subjectivity”.[8] The book examines how the perceptions of various cultures were reconstructed. This new development of vision created controversy because it implied that seeing depended upon one’s subjective thoughts. Therefore, this new way of seeing was thought of as unclear, unreliable, and always questioned by a large population of people.[citation needed] Suspensions of Perception was published in 2000 and won the 2001 Lionel Trilling Book Award.[2]

Crary’s Techniques of the Observer is a study of the origins of modern visual culture.[9] It was published in 1990 and translated into 12 languages.[10]

Crary has written on art and culture for publications including Art in America, Artforum, October, Assemblage, Cahiers du Cinéma, Film Comment, Grey Room, Domus, and The Village Voice.[11] He has also written critical essays for more than 30 exhibition catalogs.[2] Crary contributed to the 7th edition of the anthology Film Theory and Criticism anthology.[2]

In 1986, Crary was one of the founders of Zone Books, a press known for publications in history, art theory, politics, anthropology, and philosophy.[12] He co-edited the 1992 volume Incorporations (Zone Books).[13] Crary remains a co-editor at Zone Books.[14]

Bibliography

  • Crary, Jonathan (2022). Scorched earth: beyond the digital age to a post-capitalist world. Verso. ISBN 978-1-78478-444-7.
  • Crary, Jonathan (2013). 24/7: late capitalism and the ends of sleep. Verso. ISBN 978-1-78168-093-3.
  • Crary, Jonathan (1999). Suspensions of perception: attention, spectacle, and modern culture. October Books. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-585-27082-1.
  • Crary, Jonathan; Kwinter, Sanford, eds. (1992). Incorporations. New York: Zone. ISBN 978-0-942299-29-8.
  • Crary, Jonathan (1990). Techniques of the observer: on vision and modernity in the nineteenth century. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-03169-1.
  • Sternfeld, Joel; Crary, Jonathan (2010). iDubai. Göttingen: Steidl. ISBN 978-3-86521-916-9.

Notes

  1. ^ “Jonathan Crary”. November. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k “Jonathan Crary”. Department of Art History & Archaeology | Columbia University. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  3. ^ Chamois, Camille; Lipuma, Viviana (2025-10-10). “The eye of capital. Jonathan Crary and the history of attention”. Visual Studies: 1–15. doi:10.1080/1472586X.2025.2563817. ISSN 1472-586X.
  4. ^ Phillips, David (1993). Crary, Jonathan (ed.). “Modern Vision”. Oxford Art Journal. 16 (1): 129–138. ISSN 0142-6540.
  5. ^ “Jonathan K. Crary”. Guggenheim Fellowship. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  6. ^ Lezard, Nicholas (2014-07-22). “24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep by Jonathan Crary – review”. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  7. ^ Brooks, Jodi (2014-12-23). “Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture”. Screening the Past. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  8. ^ Crary, Jonathan (2001). Suspensions of perception: attention, spectacle, and modern culture. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-53199-2.
  9. ^ Katz, Barry (January 1992). “Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century by Jonathan Crary”. Technology and Culture. 33 (1): 206–207. doi:10.1353/tech.1992.0190. ISSN 1097-3729.
  10. ^ “TMS & Modernist Forum: Jonathan Crary”. English. Yale University. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  11. ^ “Jonathan Crary”. SOF/Heyman. Archived from the original on 2023-08-21. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  12. ^ “Jonathan K. Crary”. Center for Comparative Media | Columbia University. Archived from the original on 2023-08-21. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  13. ^ “ZONE 6: Incorporations”. Zone Books. 1992-10-01. Retrieved 2026-03-10.
  14. ^ “About”. Zone Books. Retrieved 2026-03-10.

References

  • Barth, Uta (2010). The long now. New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co. ISBN 978-0-9800242-4-1.
  • Robert Lehman Lectures on Contemporary Art #3. New York: Dia Art Foundation. 2004. ISBN 978-0-944521-77-9.
  • Bridget Riley: Retrospective. London: Ridinghouse. 2008. ISBN 978-1-905464-15-9.
  • Lee, Ellen Wardwell; Crary, Jonathan; Butler, William M. (1990). Seurat at Gravelines: the last landscapes. Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-936260-56-3.
  • Crary, Jonathan; Francis, Mark (2000). J. M. W. Turner: the sun is God. Tate Liverpool. ISBN 978-1-85437-342-7.