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"'What is a work?'" Michel Foucault has asked."'Is it not what an author has written?'"" One could add," is it not what an artist has made?" For an important strain of modern criticism, the artist is the principle that validates the work of art. Some critics identify the work solely with its creator. Harold Rosenberg, an extreme example of this tendency, thought the work of the" action painters" was" of the same metaphysical substance as the artist's existence." 2 According to Foucault, the principle of the author validates the work by endowing it with" a certain unity." The author, however, The research for this essay was funded in part by the American Council of Learned Societies. Part of the argument was presented at the College Art Association Annual Meeting in Boston, 1987. I am indebted to Robert von Hallberg, Joan Hart, and Richard Shiff for perceptive readings and criticisms of various drafts of this essay. I also wish to …