Rosalind Krauss. The streak of defiance

Abstract

The article depicts the emancipation of American art historian Rosalind Krauss from Clement Greenberg. By tracing the refrain from Krauss’s sixth chapter of The Optical Unconscious a personal and professional history of mentorship evolving into intellectual dispute unfolds. Through a close reading of selected writings by Krauss, the formation and breakdown of the mentor-student relationship between Krauss and Greenberg, and her emergence as an independent and important voice in art history will be reconstructed. Not merely offering biographical information, the article places the refrain in its original context, chapter six of The Optical Unconscious, in order to differentiate between Krauss’ scholarly approach from Greenberg’s ‘pronouncements’. This lays the groundwork for understanding the circular feminist gesture with which Krauss ends the sixth chapter.