Excerpt from "The Originality of the Avant-Garde" by Rosalind Krauss

This excerpt was a bit over my head at times so in my summary I may be oversimplifying or misconstruing what Krauss was trying to say, but here goes...

Krauss observes the connection between the avant-garde artist and "originality."  Not just originality in the sense of a work being different from past works, but one of the work literally starting from nothing, from a void.  She then moves on to discuss the grid and its overwhelming ties to artists who considered themselves avant-garde.  The grid inherently has a kind of silence to it that echoes the originality-needs of the avant-garde artists.  While many artists made significant use of the grid because they appreciated its originality, they also engaged in a repetition of works that is inherent in the continued use of the repetitive grid.  

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red, 1942

 Krauss later goes on to question the issue of copying and theft in art, citing the work of Sherrie Levine.  Levine took photographs of images already created by Edward Weston.  But the case is easily made that Weston's "original" work was inspired by Greek male torsos that have been copied for centuries.  Hence, there is a long line of copying and "theft" taking place so Levine's work is merely another layer in this cycle.