After the End of Art

Winner of the 1998 Eugene M. Kayden National University Press Book Prize, University of Colorado at Boulder If you are seriously attentive to contemporary art, you are already aware of Danto and his general positions, and owe it to yourself to read this book. If you are not, but are genuinely curious, you would do well to follow him... Throughout it is clear and direct; at best, it is brilliantly crystalline... I know of no more useful single book on art today. --Michael Pakenham, Baltimore Sun Is Danto gloomy about the end of art? Not in the slightest... Danto is nothing if not cheered by the prospect of an art world in which everything is permitted. --Roger Copeland, Wilson Quarterly ... the need for critical works such as this one--learned, discerning and refreshingly open-minded--is perhaps greater than ever. -- Publishers Weekly In this, Dr. Danto's best book yet, he helps us make sense of the times we are living in. --Richard Dorment, The Art Newspaper Required reading for anyone seriously interested in late-modern and contemporary art. -- Library Journal Danto was and remains the high priest of pluralism, and arch-critic of the view that art has a distinctive essence... The chapters in this book are a challenging read, but a good one, because they take us to the heart of a living and profoundly interesting contemporary debate. --A.C. Grayling, Financial Times Danto makes a lively and stimulating case [about the end of art]... The source ... of all ths mental labor is Andy Warhol, or more precisely his Brillo box sculpture... The utter banality of the piece sent 600 years of art history crashing to the ground in ruins. -- Boston Book Review