Arthur Danto

1
Arthur Danto

• Introduction to Beyond the Brillo Box
• The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspcective

2
Recent Revolutions in Art(pp. 3-4)

• Breaking down social boundaries (e.g., gender
  class)
• Breaking down the boundary between High Art and
  popular culture (e.g., Pop Art, Warhol). The
  transfiguration of the commonplace
• Making a new kind of museum (a more popular
  institution, with sales)
• And (Dantos real subject) a philosophical
  revolution.

3
The philosophical revolution in ArtArt can be
anything

• Is this primarily a liberation movement, like
  Black Power, Womens Liberation, and the other
  movements of the sixties? I.e., Art Lib we can
  be and make whatever we want?
• There might be some truth to this. Modernism in
  art kept overthrowing artistic traditions, just
  as modernism in general overthrew traditions.
  But this is not the revolution Danto has in
  mind.

4
The philosophical revolution in artYou cant
tell art just by looking

• The revolution Danto is talking about is that the
  difference between art and non-art is no longer
  visible (even though it is still there). P. 5
• Modernism made the revolution possible, by
  erasing old standards (Warhols soup cans
  wouldnt have been possible in the 19th century)

5
Question How could Brillo Box be art? Dantos
first thoughts (p. 5)

• Previous standards must have been erased (by
  modernism)
• There must be a theory that would let you count
  it as art (an enfranchising theory). In other
  words, people in the art world must at least be
  able to have a discussion, and be able to give
  reasons why such a thing should count as art, and
  some number of them must be persuaded by the
  reasons.

6
How could Brillo Box be art? Dantos later
thoughts (p. 6)

• Dantos two theses
• Brillo Box (and things like it) are examples of
  art as philosophy.
• When art becomes philosophy, art history is over.
  

7
Defense of Dantos two theses

• Background what Danto thinks Philosophy is
• The job of philosophy is to draw the boundary
  lines which divide the universe into the most
  fundamental kinds of things that exist.
• A good philosophical method find two things that
  you think are fundamentally different (like
  dreams and waking experience), yet they appear to
  be the same. Find out what makes them different.

8
Defense of Dantos first thesis(using his method)

• Brillo Box is a perfect philosophical example.
  It looks just like a carton of Brillo boxes, but
  in fact it is an art work.
• The difference is not the materials. It is wood,
  not cardboard like the real thing but Brillo
  pads could just as well be shipped in wood
  containers.
• The difference must be conceptual, not visible.
  The work raises a philosophical question about
  the difference between art and non-art.

9
Defense of Thesis Two Art comes to an end and
becomes philosophy

• Art has a master narrative (Does it?)
• Vasari thought arts master narrative was about
  representational accuracy. Once you achieve
  Renaissance mastery, the quest is over now you
  just use the tools youve created.
• Hegel (according to Danto) thought the narrative
  was a philosophical one. Art gives rise to the
  question of its true identity, and when that
  happens, it has become (the occasion of)
  philosophy.

10
Art becomes philosophy

• Art was raising from within itself the question
  of its being.
• Examples please?
• Until the form of the question came from within
  art, philosophy was powerless to raise it and
  once it was raised, art was powerless to resolve
  it. That point was reached when art and reality
  were indiscernible.

11
The End of Art?

• According to Danto, a narrative has ended.
  People still make art, and no doubt always will.
  But art is no longer carrying forward the
  history of discovery and making new
  breakthroughs (like Calder making sculptures
  that moved). These are conceptual and not just
  technological breakthroughs
• In the post-historical period, anything goes.
  You can make any kind of art you want. During
  modernism, that was not true.

12
Danto further thoughts

• Dantos definition of art A work of art is an
  artifact that is about something, and that
  embodies its meaning.
• Dantos idea of three Ages of Art
• The Age of Representation Art is to represent
  and be beautiful
• The Age of Manifestos (Modernism) Art tries to
  discover what it is.
• The Post-Historical Age Art reaches the end of
  its philosophical investigation and is liberated.

13
Questions about Danto

• Is Danto right that something has ended, and that
  we are now in a new, pluralistic period in art?
• Is Danto right about what has ended?
• Hegel thought art was an attempt to capture
  something transcendent in physical form. What do
  you think Danto would say about this?