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The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art
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Danto simply and entertainingly traces the evolution of the concept of beauty over the past century and explores how it was removed from the definition of art. Beauty then came to be regarded as a serious aesthetic crime, whereas a hundred years ago it was almost unanimously considered the supreme purpose of art. Beauty is not, and should not be, the be-all and end-all of
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Paperback, 224 pages
Published
June 6th 2003
by Open Court
(first published 2003)
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Arthur C. Danto (1924-2013) was an American philosopher and art critic who taught at Columbia University and devoted many years to following the New York art scene and writing on contemporary art and art history. ‘The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art’ consists of eight essays: Introduction: The Aesthetics of the Brillo Box 1) Beauty and the Philosophical Definition of Art 2) The Intractable Avant-Garde 3) Beauty and Beautification 4) Internal and External Beauty 5) Beauty and P ...more
I was pleasantly surprised at how fluently Danto writes! He has a unique style, especially in comparison to other philosophers and art historians, who tend to use a kind of enigmatic metalanguage . Danto is much more blunt and even funny at certain times, yet his ideas are immensely important, perhaps even revolutionary for art theory. This just spurred me to continue reading some of his other works.
As concepts of aesthetics move through the centuries and as people mostly know Aristotle and Kant I find it fascinating to move further and beyond to time, when the concept of beauty changes, at least in aesthetics, rapidly. Arthur C. Dantos piece on aesthetics of art and the concepts themselves is a piece every art student must read and every nerd should consider.
Salvo que es un poquito repetitivo me ha gustado mucho.
Una pega seria sobre la edición española que he leído: me parece increíble publicar un libro sobre arte con apenas 4 fotos pequeñas en blanco y negro.
(Las pullas a Lyotard me hacen gracia ojalá más).
Una pega seria sobre la edición española que he leído: me parece increíble publicar un libro sobre arte con apenas 4 fotos pequeñas en blanco y negro.
(Las pullas a Lyotard me hacen gracia ojalá más).
Una gran redefinición del papel de la belleza en el arte. Creía que iba a ser más denso filosóficamente, pero pasado el primer capítulo, la prosa es una delicia.
Great book. Full of thoughts on beauty and its place in art.
A lot of repetition within.
A lot of repetition within.
I read it during my Undergraduate Psychology classes. It gave me some good insights to prepare my course project paper, "What is Beauty: I’ll Eat You Orange Lips".
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Arthur C. Danto was Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University and art critic for The Nation. He was the author of numerous books, including Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life, After the End of Art, and Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective.
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