After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History
Art is still dead, according to Arthur Danto, professor at Columbia University and art critic forThe Nation.After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of Historyis a collection of Danto's 1995 Mellon Lectures on the Fine Arts. Famous for his radical critiques of the nature of art--he dates the death of art to around 1964 and declares the art museum has replaced the church for the masses--Danto continues to question traditional notions of aesthetics and philosophy in regard to contemporary art. While touching on a variety of art-related topics, the focus of tehse lectures remains the deviation of contemporary art from the great narrative that has defined art throughout history.