Sculpture in the Expanded Field

Rosalind Krauss, "Sculpture in the Expanded Field", October, Vol.8 (Spring, 1979), pp.30-44.


Rosalind Krauss is an American art critic, professor, and theorist. She attempts to understand the phenomenon of modernist art, in its historical, theoretical, and formal contexts. In her 1979 essay Sculpture in the Expanded Field, Krauss summarizes the development of American sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s. One of the main ideas from this article is showing the issues dealing with the category of sculpture, as it became almost infinitely malleable in the contemporary context (Krauss 30).

Krauss adopted the term ‘expanded field’ from Robert Morris as an extended physical and mental terrain for understanding ‘sculpture’ (Rendell 41). In the term ‘expanded field’, sculpture like in all other categories of art, lost its own logic. Sculpture was inseparable from the logic of the monument functioning as commemorative representation until the late nineteenth century. However in the expanded field as Krauss expresses, the boundaries between sculpture and architecture, sculpture and landscape, and landscape and architecture became unclear. The territory of sculpture has been, and still is continuously extending while artists are experimenting with its limits, seeking to understand what sculpture is. The field of sculpture with mode of practice are constantly evolving, therefore issues with territory are no longer seen as a big topic. For example, contemporary art institutions like Elam School of Fine art offer an interdisciplinary studio environment to allow students to experiment with a broad range of art and gain insight into developing infinite possibilities.

Furthermore, I agree with Krauss’s viewpoint of how the category of sculpture has been extended to include just about anything (30). This could be impacted by Duchampian paradigm, “Its art if you say it is.” A work by conceptual artist Martin Creed, Work No 79, some Blue-tack kneaded, rolled into a ball and depressed against a wall 1933, can be seen as extended physical and mental form in the contemporary sculpture. This installation piece is also dealing with the issue of art being dysfunctional outside of art an institutional frame. A piece of Blue-tack depressed against a wall can be easily found in our everyday life evidencing the idea of sculpture as being infinitely malleable. In addition, like in Duchampian paradigm, anything can be art if the artist says so? Today we are not so sure how to define sculpture. I think Krauss’s point of view is convincing especially in the context of the period it was written and some of the ideas and issues she discussed are clearly still valid in the world of contemporary art today.


Rendell, Jane. “The Expanded Field.” Art and Architecture: A Place Between. New York: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2006.