Arthur Danto
Philosopher of Art & Critic
About
Arthur Danto (1924–2013) was an American philosopher who taught for most of his career at Columbia University. His 1964 paper 'The Artworld,' written after encountering Andy Warhol's Brillo Box sculptures, asked how two perceptually identical objects — a Warhol Brillo Box and an ordinary supermarket carton — could differ in status as art, and answered that the difference lies not in the object but in an 'atmosphere of art theory' and history surrounding it. He developed this into an institutional theory of art in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (1981), arguing that a work of art is 'a meaning embodied' in a way mere things are not. Drawing on Hegel, he also argued that contemporary art had reached an 'end of art' condition, in which no style or medium is any longer philosophically privileged, leaving artists free to work in any manner at all. From 1984 to 2009 he served as art critic for The Nation, translating this philosophy into decades of criticism.
Key Contributions
- Wrote 'The Artworld' (1964), asking how a Warhol Brillo Box differs from an ordinary carton if the two look identical
- Argued that what makes an object art is an 'atmosphere of art theory,' not any perceptible property of the object itself
- Developed the institutional theory of art fully in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (1981)
- Proposed an 'end of art' thesis: that art history had reached a point with no privileged style, freeing artists to work in any manner
- Served as art critic for The Nation (1984–2009), applying his philosophy of art to decades of contemporary criticism
