The Abuse of Beauty: The Paul Carus Lectures 21 [Hardcover]

Arthur C. Danto (Author)

Book Description

Series: Paul Carus Lectures | Publication Date: February 2003

In The Abuse of Beauty, art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto explains how the notion of beauty as anathema to art arose and flourished and offers a new way of looking at art and beauty. He draws on the thought of artists, critics, and philosophers such as Rimbaud, Fry, Matisse, and Greenberg, to reposition beauty as one of many modes - along with sexuality, sublimity, disgust, and horror - through which the human sensibility expresses itself. 20 black-and-white illustrations are included.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Charting the disappearance of beauty as a primary artistic value in the 20th century, Danto (The Transfiguration of the Commonplace, etc.) offers a hot-and-cold mix of philosophical musings and autobiographical reflections that attempt to restore a place for beauty as an "option for art" and a "necessary condition for life as we would want to live it." To that end, the veteran art critic and Columbia University philosopher discusses and, at various points, disagrees with Hume, Kant and Hegel, building a view of beauty as one among many modes through which artworks may present thoughts to human sensibility. He distinguishes between natural and artistic beauty, between beauty and sublimity, and between beauty internal to an artwork and external to it. Although Danto clearly defines an artwork as an "embodied meaning," he does not as clearly define what he means by beauty, making much of his discussion unnecessarily vague. It is also unnecessarily meandering, too often feeling like notes from assorted lectures, which is how most of the chapters originated. "Read it as an adventure story," he says, "with a few philosophical arguments and distinctions [brought back] as trophies." But good adventure stories need a strong narrative, and there isn't one here. Still, there are trophies: philosophical insights of genuine value to anyone interested in beauty, art or the connections between the two.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

This is a brave thesis in the context of the analytical tradition in which it is being presented. -- Philosophy in Review, July 2005 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Open Court (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812695399
• ISBN-13: 978-0812695397
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,092,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful study of the role of beauty in art, September 15, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21) (Paperback)

Expertly written by Arthur C. Danto (art critic of "The Nation" magazine and Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Column University), The Abuse Of Beauty: Aesthetics And The Concept Of Art is an intriguing and thoughtful study of the role of beauty in art. A century ago, art strived for beauty above all; yet in the modern day, an overly beautiful work of art may even be downgraded by critics for that very reason. Individual chapters cogently address the issues of internal and external beauty in art; the intersection of beauty and politics; the beautiful and the sublime within the concept and execution of art, and a great deal more in this intellectually stimulating and enthusiastically recommended discourse as to how art is viewed within the contexts of the past, the present, and the future.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beauty explained again (and again), December 8, 2010

By 

Candyland4Real - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21) (Paperback)

This book was just long enough that I was still interested in what Danto had to say about beauty in art at the end. Any longer, and I probably would not have finished it. That being said, Danto does not obviously go through every single artist that ever dealt with this subject. It is an opinion book, and as such, subjects are discussed according to his taste. Also, the book had a nice, conversational tone, which also helped the reader get through the various levels of beauty in art without tearing their hair out.

Probably my favorite part about "The Abuse of Beauty" is that Danto does not force his opinion on you. He presents his opinion while discussing many historical events in art, and therefore opens the door for his readers to form their own opinions. There are a lot of different sections to this short book, but all of them are varied and interesting. Overall, a very informative and pretty enjoyable read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Art be Beautiful?, March 17, 2011

By 

Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (The Paul Carus Lectures Series 21) (Paperback)

Recently, a posting on a photography bulletin board that I follow asked whether the work of Jasper Johns was beautiful. Ultimately the thread devolved into a free-for-all about patriotism (based on the fact that a Johns work showed an American flag). In the battle the original question was lost, but, after reading "The Abuse of Beauty" I suspect that was because the original poster asked the wrong question. I suppose he should have asked whether the work was Art, with a capital A.

This book deals with such confusion. Danto, a popularizing philosopher, explains how philosophers like Kant and Hegel examined the question of art, relating it to beauty. But Danto points out that while that relationship may have existed in the 17th century, it was certainly gone by the twentieth century. Aesthetics, which he defines as the study of beauty in the arts, is not an appropriate field for discussion of much modern art, because much of that art was not beautiful. (I would suggest that Danto's definition of aesthetics is too narrow, but his definition allows him to expand on his ultimate point.) The author asks questions like what is art, and defines it in terms of how people view it; is it a matter of form, or is it a cultural artifact that tries to explain the culture in which it was created? Danto acknowledges these aspects of art as useful in appreciating art, but ultimately comes down on the side of a rather traditional view of art, namely as a device for transforming our view of the world and ourselves.

When I said that Danto was a popularizer, I didn't mean that as an insult. As I noted in my recent review of "The Life and Death of Images: Ethics and Aesthetics", too often, when speaking about art, philosophers, semioticians, art historians and art critics speak to us in jargon and convoluted arguments that only members of that inner circle can decode. Danto on the other hand, speaks clearly, in terms that ordinary people can understand. Oh, one might occasionally have to reread a paragraph, or even a chapter to grasp what is being said, and certainly this book should not be read on the subway, at least by most people. But it is ultimately accessible.

Danto's thesis is a simple one. Art is not just about beauty, but rather the effect that it has on our mind. Perhaps if the poster referred to in the first paragraph had understood this, the ensuing discussion would have been more useful.