After the End of Art

Originally delivered as the prestigious Mellon Lectures on the Fine Arts in 1995, After the End of Art remains a classic of art criticism and philosophy, and continues to generate heated debate for contending that art ended in the 1960s. Arthur Danto, one of the best-known art critics of his time, presents radical insights into art's irrevocable deviation from its previous course and the decline of traditional aesthetics. He demonstrates the necessity for a new type of criticism in the face of contemporary art's wide-open possibilities. This Princeton Classics edition includes a new foreword by philosopher Lydia Goehr.

List of Illustrations ix
Foreword to the Princeton Classics Edition xi
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary 3
CHAPTER TWO Three Decades after the End of Art 21
CHAPTER THREE Master Narratives and Critical Principles 41
CHAPTER FOUR Modernism and the Critique of Pure Art: The Historical Vision of Clement Greenberg 61
CHAPTER FIVE From Aesthetics to Art Criticism 81
CHAPTER SIX Painting and the Pale of History: The Passing of the Pure 101
CHAPTER SEVEN Pop Art and Past Futures 117
CHAPTER EIGHT Painting, Politics, and Post-Hisotrical Art 135
CHAPTER NINE The Historical Museum of Monochrome Art 153
CHAPTER TEN Museums and the Thirsting Millions 175
CHAPTER ELEVEN Modalities of History: Possibility and Comedy 193
Index 221