Andy Warhol
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Arthur C. Danto
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Format: PaperPrice: $18.00
An elegant, masterful portrait of Andy Warhol’s life, character, and lasting influence by an eminent art critic.
"Danto . . . sums up the Pop master's evolution as both artist and persona. . . . It is, in essence, everything you need to dive deeper into Brillo boxes and Empire."—Rachel Wolff, The Daily Beast(Best Art and Photography Books of 2009)
In a work of great wisdom and insight, art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto delivers a compact, masterful tour of Andy Warhol’s personal, artistic, and philosophical transformations. Danto traces the evolution of the pop artist, including his early reception, relationships with artists such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and the Factory phenomenon. He offers close readings of individual Warhol works, including their social context and philosophical dimensions, key differences with predecessors such as Marcel Duchamp, and parallels with successors like Jeff Koons. Danto brings to bear encyclopedic knowledge of Warhol’s time and shows us Warhol as an endlessly multidimensional figure—artist, political activist, filmmaker, writer, philosopher—who retains permanent residence in our national imagination.
Danto suggests that "what makes him an American icon is that his subject matter is always something that the ordinary American understands: everything, or nearly everything he made art out of came straight out of the daily lives of very ordinary Americans. . . . The tastes and values of ordinary persons all at once were inseparable from advanced art."
"A distinctive original contribution that can be read in a single sitting, but embodies the wisdom of a lifetime of looking, reflection and writing. It's as if Danto has been waiting all these years to produce this magnificent synthesis."—David Carrier, Cleveland Institute of Art
“This study of what makes And Warhol a fascinating artist from a philosophical perspective explores new territory in our unending quest to evaluate the contribution of the greatest American artist of the 20th century. Arthur Danto’s Andy Warhol is a deep read.”—Victor Bockris
“When Arthur Danto encountered Andy Warhol's Brillo Box in 1964, the experience transformed his vision of art. This book exhibits his philosophical heft and engagement with Warhol.”—Steven Watson, author of Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties
“Arthur Danto's encounter with Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes in 1964 not only transformed his philosophical career, but also reshaped the course of twentieth-century aesthetics. His masterful new book articulates the artworld contexts, cultural issues, creative strategies, and aesthetic ideas through which Warhol's special genius was expressed. Danto paints a definitive portrait of Warhol's meaning as an American icon, while also exemplifying the critical intelligence and philosophical imagination that has earned Danto his own iconic status in the world of art theory and criticism.”—Richard Shusterman, author of Pragmatist Aesthetics
"Andy Warhol transferred the essence of American consumer society in the sixties into works of art and fundamentally changed the notion of Art. Arthur Danto now gives his art a philosophical corpus and meaning. In this brilliant text of genius and clarity, Danto revisits the world of Andy Warhol and adds to the awareness of his work, which continues to cast its shadow over contemporary art internationally." — Gunnar B. Kvaran, Director, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art
"Everything that passed before Warhol's basilisk gaze—celebrities, socialites, speed freaks, rock bands, film, and fashion—he imprinted with his deadpan mixture of glamour and humor, then cast them back into the world as narcissistic reflections of his own personality. This is what makes him one of the most complex and elusive figures in the history of art. As Danto explains in his brilliant short study of Warhol, the question Warhol asked is not 'What is art?' but 'What is the difference between two things, exactly alike, one of which is art and one of which is not?'"—Richard Dorment, The New York Review of Books
‘Mr Danto is an elegant and erudite writer.’
“A concise and insightful primer that can be enjoyed both by those who know little about the artist and by rabid Warhol enthusiasts . . . wholly satisfying . . . solid scholarship and brilliant turns of phrase.”--Doug McClemont, ARTnews
‘Andy Warhol both distils the philosopher/art critic’s best thinking on the artist and offers searching new insights into the artist’s body of work from the 1960’s.’ — Richard Deming, Frieze, March 2010
Publication Date: September 28, 2010
6 b/w illus.
