Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 1 Danto on the end of art zArthur C. Danto. “The End of Art.” In The Death of Art. Ed. Berel Lang. NY: Haven Publishers, ‚Danto says he takes his cue from George W.F. Hegel’s ( ) statement that art has not future, but it may still be produced posthistorically. ‚The issue. yIs art internally exhausted?

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 2 zArthur Danto & his wife Barbara Westman zNew York City, 1989 zThe New York Times Magazine, November 19, 1989

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 3 Danto on the end of art yIs there now only change without development? ‚Three models of the historiography of art, models to explain the history of art (or are they different periods in the history of art, a theory about the periodization of art?)

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 4 Danto on the end of art ‚1. The progressive model yRoots are in Vasari who saw the history of art as the gradual conquest of natural appearances yProgress under this model = optical duplication äCf. Ingres & Cimabue åCimabue åIngres

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 5 Danto on the end of art ‚Cenni di pepo, called Cimabue ‚The Santa Trinita MadonnaThe Santa Trinita Madonna ‚c 1260/80 ‚Tempera on panel ‚385 x 223 cm ‚Uffizi, Florence ‚Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ‚Pauline Eleanore de Galard de Brassac de Bearn, Princesse de Broglie ‚1853 ‚Oil on canvas ‚47 3/4 x 35 3/4 in. ‚The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 6 Danto on the end of art yThis model of the history of art parallels [is taken from?] the history of science-- a progressive shrinking of the distance between representation and reality (9). yReached its culmination with motions pictures with sound. äMotion was depicted before moving pictures. E.g., Bernini’s David

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 7 Danto on the end of art äBut here motion is inferred vs depicted. Motion pictures eliminated the mediating inferences. åThe leap is from inferring to showing motion. ‚2. 2nd model to explain the history of art - Expressionism yThe cinema played a role in turned art away from representation.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 8 Danto on the end of art yIt raised the question: what is there for painters and sculptors to do? yThe new explanation of what art and the history of art is all about was expression. y“Painters were not so much representing as expressing” (22). yCroce’s Estetica was published in 1902.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 9 Danto on the end of art yIt raised the question: what is there for painters and sculptors to do? äThe discrepancies between the painting and the reality are due to feelings. äEven AE paintings were about feelings, objectless feelings -- joy, depression, excitement (24).

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 10 Danto on the end of art äEven AE paintings were about feelings, objectless feelings -- joy, depression, excitement (24). yThe expressionist turn marked the end of the idea of the history of art as a progressive movement. äHow can expressions be progressive? äThere is only the lives of artists, one after another (25).

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 11 Danto on the end of art äThere is only the lives of artists, one after another (25). äArt has no direction. äIs not surprising then that after 1906, art has been a dazzling succession of movements. åSee list, p. 29. åThe imperative for each artist was to make an art- historical period.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 12 Danto on the end of art åThe imperative for each artist was to make an art- historical period, & each of these styles must have a theory. yBut expressionism is too thin to account for this rapid succession of movements.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 13 Danto on the end of art ‚3. 3rd model - end of art yDanto acknowledges his debt to Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit for this model. yThe goal of Hegel’s Geist is self- knowledge, self-realization, and this is philosophy. äAnd for Hegel, art is one of these stages toward self- knowledge.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 14 Danto on the end of art yA feature of the recent movements in art is that “the objects approach zero as their theory approaches infinity, so that virtually all there is at the end is theory” (31). äArt “becomes vaporized in a dazzle of pure thought in itself...” (31). yOn this view, it makes sense to claim that art has come to an end.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 15 Danto on the end of art yOf course, art-making will continue but in a “post-historical period of art.” yIn this period, art becomes philosophy. zCritique ‚1. Much of contemporary art is not self- reflective; many artists are simply interested in presenting images.

Danto on the end of art ~ part I ~ slide 16 Danto on the end of art ‚2. One of Danto’s arguments for the end of art--the exhaustion of possibilities argument--fails to take account of mystery. Perhaps this is a central feature of humankind & because of that reflected in art.