From Publishers Weekly
This penetrating new entry in Yale's Icons of America series synthesizes biography, cultural criticism and aesthetics. Former
Nation art critic and Columbia philosophy professor emeritus Danto (
After the End of Art) argues that Andy Warhol radically redefined the question of art. His
Brillo Boxes and
Campbell's Soup Cans challenged the viewer to ask, What is the difference between two things, exactly alike, one of which is art and one of which is not? Danto, whose visit to a Warhol show in 1964 inspired him to become a philosopher of art, views many of Warhol's most important works as answers to such philosophical puzzles. Danto's writing is elegant and his insights acute: the
Marilyn Diptych's transformative repetition is linked to Coltrane's compositions; Warhol's final
Last Supper series represented, Danto argues convincingly in a profound final chapter, the culmination of the artist's mission to externalize the interiority of our shared world. This valuable work of critical cultural analysis reveals aspects of Warhol so far uncovered and unexplored that will appeal widely to the interested generalist as well as to scholars of contemporary art, American culture and aesthetics. Photos.
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*Starred Review* An artist turned philosopher, Danto was transfixed and transformed by Andy Warhol’s shocking Brillo Box show in 1964. Now one of the world’s most prominent art critics and philosophers of art, Danto focuses on Warhol’s “philosophical mind” and the “tremendously original” ideas behind his Brillo Boxes and paintings of Campbell’s Soup cans, money, and celebrities in this fresh, supple, and illuminating inquiry. As complex as Danto’s perceptions are, his language is always direct and clear, his discoveries arresting as he explicates Warhol’s sensitivity to the “tragedy of the commonplace”; trust in sameness, multiplicity, and collaboration; and attempts to capture unedited reality. Danto astutely traces the ripple effects of Warhol’s blurring of the lines between commercial and fine art, and art and real life; the startling power of his portraits, particularly of Marilyn and Mao, and his provocative, maddening films. Danto draws on just enough biographical and historical coverage to support his penetrating insights into Warhol’s personal struggles, blatant quest for fame, and confounding public persona. A masterful crystallization of why and how Warhol’s revolutionary techniques and creations shattered the traditional, restrictive definition of art, and razed the way for today’s creative pluralism and artistic freedom. --Donna Seaman
