Arthur C. Danto
1924-2013 · American · Aesthetics, Philosophy of Art, Philosophy of History, Action Theory, Philosophy of Mind
Art has come to an end.
When Andy Warhol exhibited his Brillo Boxes at the Stable Gallery in 1964, Arthur Danto recognized that something philosophically decisive had happened. The boxes were visually indistinguishable from supermarket packaging — same dimensions, same surface — yet one was art and one was not. Whatever made the difference could not be seen. That question became the engine of the most ambitious project in American philosophy of art of the twentieth century.
Topics Arthur C. Danto addresses
- the artworld
- the method of indiscernibles
- the Brillo Box question
- the transfiguration of the commonplace
- aboutness as a property of artworks
- embodied meaning
- the end of art
- post-historical art
- the philosophical disenfranchisement of art
- narrative sentences
- interpretive seeing
- the four-condition definition of art
- works of art and mere real things
- essence and historical variability
- the Hegelian turn in aesthetics
- analytical philosophy of history
- basic action
- mimesis and Plato's banishment of the poets
- surface and deep interpretation
- metaphor, expression, and style
- content and causation
- future and past contingencies
- internal versus external beauty
- the late accommodation of beauty
Questions to put to Arthur C. Danto
The Artworld and the Method of Indiscernibles
- What is the difference between Warhol's Brillo Box and an ordinary brillo box from the supermarket?
- What do you mean by the artworld?
- How does the method of indiscernibles work across different areas of philosophy?
- Why can't we see what makes something art just by looking at it?
- What's wrong with saying art is whatever institutions decide to call art?
The Definition of Art and Embodied Meaning
- What are the four conditions that make something a work of art?
- How does an artwork embody its meaning rather than just describe it?
- What's the difference between aboutness in art and aboutness in ordinary language?
- Why do artworks require interpretation in a way that ordinary things don't?
- Can you explain what you mean by interpretive seeing?
The End of Art and Post-Historical Pluralism
- What do you mean when you say art has come to an end?
- How did Warhol's Brillo Boxes mark the conclusion of art's master narrative?
- What's the difference between the end of art and the end of art-making?
- Why is anything possible in post-historical art?
- How is your end-of-art thesis different from Hegel's claim that art is a thing of the past?
The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art
- How has philosophy systematically disenfranchised art since Plato?
- What's at stake for you in Plato's banishment of the poets from the Republic?
- How did Hegel absorb art into philosophy's own project?
- Has contemporary analytical aesthetics continued the disenfranchisement in new forms?
- How does post-historical art overcome philosophy's traditional subordination of it?
Narrative Sentences and Historical Knowledge
- What is a narrative sentence?
- Why couldn't someone in 1618 have said the Thirty Years War was beginning?
- How do later events change the meaning of earlier events?
- Why are complete contemporary histories impossible?
- What's wrong with the covering-law model of historical explanation?
Art Criticism and Philosophical Practice
- How did writing art criticism for The Nation shape your philosophical work?
- What's the relationship between your analytical training and your critical practice?
- Why did you spend twenty-five years reviewing contemporary art exhibitions?
- How do you see the connection between philosophy of art and actual art-making?
Converse with Arthur C. Danto on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Arthur C. Danto's own writing, cited to the page.