Danto and the end of art

surrendering to unintelligibility

pp. 147-204

in: Stephen Snyder, End-of-art philosophy in Hegel, Nietzsche and Danto, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

This chapter investigates Danto's claim that with the era of art at an end, art is free from any "master narrative," and art can be whatever it wants. Snyder shows that though Danto's assertion mirrors Hegel's nineteenth-century claim that art has moved beyond its representational style to the more conceptual format of philosophy, it is nonetheless significantly different from Hegel's. Arguing that Danto's theory cannot be fully understood without reference to his earlier "non-aesthetic" writings, the chapter weaves together Danto's theories of narrative, action, knowledge and the body to explain how Danto's theory comes together in his aesthetic notion of style. Snyder's reconstruction of Danto's 'system" elucidates the multiple streams of thought that culminate in his claim that art has ended.