Remarks on art and philosophy

About this book

"'What makes something a work of art?' This is the question that philosopher Arthur C. Danto asked himself after seeing Andy Warhol's Brillo Box at a 1964 exhibition at the Stable Gallery in New York City. The philosophy of art was not Danto's primary area of inquiry at the time, but Warhol's work prompted him to return to this question over several decades. Danto delivered the previously unpublished lectures presented in this volume at the Acadia Summer Arts Program, Kippy's Kamp, on Mount Desert Island, Maine, from 1997 through 2009. They explain the ideas that he set forth in professional philosophical papers and books ... which described his philosophy of art. Informal yet deeply thought-provoking, these lecture explore how Danto has analyzed art through a philosophical lens, yielding an approach that different from most other contemporary art criticism. Danto's though on art go beyond formal analysis and taste judgments, instead focusing on questions about the nature of art and attempting to define what a work of art is. These lectures present some of his most notable ideas in terms that those with no training in philosophy can understand."--Jacket flap.