This paper examines Rosalind Krauss's influential 1979 essay "Sculpture in the Expanded Field" and tests her theoretical framework against the actual work of four contemporary sculptors. Krauss argues that sculpture retains its own distinct logic even as its definition broadens beyond the monument toward landscape, architecture, and their opposites. The paper then considers how Mary Miss, Richard Serra, Alice Aycock, and Nancy Holt each engage with this expanded field — through site-specific environmental works, massive metal installations, architectural mazes, and monument-like outdoor forms — demonstrating how postmodern sculpture both challenges and confirms Krauss's theoretical categories.
The paper exemplifies theory-to-practice application: it first summarizes a foundational critical text, then uses that framework as a lens to analyze and classify the work of multiple artists. This approach shows how secondary theoretical sources can organize and illuminate primary artistic examples without reducing the artwork to mere illustration.
The paper opens with a two-paragraph summary of Krauss's argument, covering her definitions of sculpture, monument, modernism, and the expanded field. It then devotes one focused paragraph to each of four sculptors — Mary Miss, Richard Serra, Alice Aycock, and Nancy Holt — describing their formal characteristics and situating them within the Krauss framework. The conclusion of each artist section implicitly ties back to the expanded field, creating a consistent structural rhythm throughout.
Rosalind Krauss begins her essay "Sculpture in the Expanded Field" by questioning what sculpture is — and what sculpture is now. She recounts the arguments of other theorists and historians who claim that because anything can pass for sculpture, sculpture as a distinct art form no longer exists. Krauss adamantly argues the opposite. She claims that the world and the artistic community remain very much aware of what sculpture is, explaining that sculpture has its own logic. She also describes sculpture as it relates to the monument, noting that both are commemorative representations (Krauss, 1979).
As the concept of sculpture expands, Krauss contends that most sculpture diverges between two poles: the logic and permanence of a monument on one side, and a homelessness or loss of place on the other — what she characterizes as sculpture's entrance into modernism (Krauss, 1979). She further describes another kind of sculpture that is simultaneously landscape and architecture, such as labyrinths and Japanese gardens, as well as its opposites: sculpture that is non-landscape and non-architecture. Krauss circumscribes the world of sculpture and the ways in which sculptors engage space and audience. She defines and redefines what sculpture is and the methods of expression or communication within the field. The new spaces and forms of sculpture are precisely what she refers to when she invokes the expanded field. She concludes the essay with mention of the recent unification and manifestation of postmodernism in sculpture (Krauss, 1979).
Mary Miss may be one of the sculptors Krauss had in mind when describing works that leave audiences uncertain which part of the piece is actually the sculpture. Miss's works challenge traditional concepts of sculpture and step boldly into the expanded field Krauss describes. A number of her pieces appear to occur almost naturally within their surroundings; others look as though they serve some utilitarian function. Her works show great variation in form, materials, and scale. Many are sited outdoors and make active use of the local environment, blurring the boundary between art object and landscape.
Richard Serra is an imposing sculptor who works primarily with metals. His pieces are known to warp and distort a viewer's sense of depth, space, and perspective. Many of his metallic works are massive in scale, created for both interior and exterior settings. Serra smooths the metal to an almost unreal degree — what was originally rough, sharp, and angular becomes smooth, curvaceous, and fluid by the time he is finished. He, too, is an artist working squarely within Krauss's expanded field.
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