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.

Arthur C. Danto (1924–2013) was the Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University and art critic for the Nation from 1984 to 2009. His books include What Art Is and Encounters and Reflections, winner of the 1990 National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. Lydia Goehr is professor of philosophy at Columbia University. Her books include The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works and Elective Affinities.

Table of Contents:

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