Rosalind E. Krauss  Rosalind Epstein Krauss (born November 30, 1941) is an American art critic, art theorist and a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Krauss is known for her scholarship in 20th-century painting, sculpture and photography. As a critic and theorist she has published steadily since 1965 in "Artforum," "Art International" and "Art in America". She was associate editor of "Artforum" from 1971 to 1974 and has been editor of "October", a journal of contemporary arts criticism and theory that she co-founded in 1976. Krauss was born to Matthew M. Epstein and Bertha Luber  in Washington D.C. and grew up in the area, visiting art museums with her father. After graduating from Wellesley in 1962, she attended Harvard, whose Department of Fine Arts (now Department of History of Art and Architecture) had a strong tradition of the intensive analysis of actual art objects under the aegis of the Fogg Museum. Krauss wrote her dissertation on the work of David Smith. Krauss received her Ph.D. in 1969. The dissertation was published as "Terminal Iron Works" in 1971. In the late-1960s and early-1970s Krauss began to contribute articles to art journals such as "Art International" and "Artforum" — which, under the editorship of Philip Leider, was relocated from California to New York. She began by writing the "Boston Letter" for "Art International," but soon published well-received articles on Jasper Johns ("Lugano Review", 1965) and Donald Judd ("Allusion and Illusion in Donald Judd," "Artforum", May 1966). Her commitment to the emerging minimal art in particular set her apart from Michael Fried, who was oriented toward the continuation of modernist abstraction in Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland and Anthony Caro. Krauss's article "A View of Modernism" ("Artforum", September 1972), was one signal of this break. Krauss became dissatisfied with "Artforum" when in its November 1974 issue it published a full-page advertisement by featuring the artist Lynda Benglis aggressively posed with a large latex dildo and wearing only a pair of sunglasses promoting an upcoming exhibition of hers at the Paula Cooper Gallery. Although Benglis' image is now popularly cited as an important example of gender performativity in contemporary art, it provoked mixed responses when it first appeared. Krauss and other Artforum personnel attacked Benglis' work in the following month's issue of "Artforum", describing the advertisement as exploitative and brutalizing, and soon left the magazine to co-found "October" in 1976.