Arthur C. Danto

Art Critic

Arthur C. Danto was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1924, and grew up in Detroit. After spending two years in the Army, Danto studied art and history at Wayne University (now Wayne State University) and then at Columbia University.

From 1949 to 1950, Danto studied in Paris on a Fulbright scholarship, and in 1951 returned to teach at Columbia, where he is currently Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy.

Since 1984, he has been art critic for The Nation, and in addition to his many books on philosophical subjects, he has published several collections of art criticism, including Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1990), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism; Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992); Playing With the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe (University of California, 1995); and, most recently, The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000). He lives in New York City.

Arthur Danto’s Critique of the ‘Aesthetic Terrorism’ of Jeff Koons

Arthur Danto’s Critique of the ‘Aesthetic Terrorism’ of Jeff Koons Arthur Danto’s Critique of the ‘Aesthetic Terrorism’ of Jeff Koons

A solo Koons exhibition, Danto wrote in 1989, was “a vision of an aesthetic hell.”

Sep 2, 2014 / Back Issues / Back Issues and Arthur C. Danto

Jarring Bottles: The Paintings of Giorgio Morandi Jarring Bottles: The Paintings of Giorgio Morandi

The paintings of Giorgio Morandi render new meaning to the term natura morta.

Dec 3, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Unlovable Unlovable

The contemporary art world, reflected in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, is themeless and heading in no identifiable direction.

May 8, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Just Looking Just Looking

Mapping the difficulty, danger and beauty in the art of Nicholas Poussin.

Mar 20, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Tilted Ash Tilted Ash

A retrospective exhibition of Martin Puryear's sculptures reinvents MoMA's signature atrium space as a site for spiritual longing.

Dec 13, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Cinema Studies Cinema Studies

The staged images in Jeff Wall's photographs mirror the fictional glamour of film stills and formal painting.

May 17, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

A Mannerist in Madrid A Mannerist in Madrid

Jacopo Tintoretto outshines Michelangelo, but his work is rarely seen outside of Venice.

Mar 29, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

Letters Letters

GERALD FORD & THE SOUL TRAIN Lowell, Mich.

Jan 24, 2007 / Letters / Arthur C. Danto, Our Readers, and Daniel Lazare

Surface Appeal Surface Appeal

Marden and Manet at MoMA.

Jan 11, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

The Body in Pain The Body in Pain

Fernando Botero's latest series of paintings, inspired by the Abu Ghraib photos, immerse us in the experience of suffering in a way the original photographs never did.

Nov 9, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Arthur C. Danto

x