Arthur Danto, a renowned philosopher and the Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University, will give the lecture “Kant and the Work of Art” on Wednesday, April 28, at 8 p.m. in the Rose and Jules R. Setnor Auditorium, Crouse College. The talk, which is the spring lecture of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA), is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Irving Garage.
One of the most influential art scholars and philosophers of our time, Danto has been a major shaper of recent aesthetic theory. He studied art and history and received a B.A. in fine arts from Wayne University. He went on to receive both an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia. From 1949-50, Danto studied in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship under Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In 1951, he returned to teach at Columbia.
Danto was an art critic for The Nation from 1984-2009 and has also published numerous articles in other journals. In addition, he is an editor of the Journal of Philosophy and a contributing editor of Artforum, among other publications.
Danto is author of numerous books on philosophy and art, including “Connections to the World: The Basic Concepts of Philosophy” (University of California Press, 1997), “After the End of Art” (Princeton University Press, 1997), “The Abuse of Beauty” (Open Court, 2003) and “Andy Warhol” (Yale University Press, 2009).
Danto’s essays and papers include “The Artworld” (1964), “The State of the Art” (1987), “Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present” (1990), “Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective” (1992), “Playing With the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe” (1995), “The Wake of Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and the Ends of Taste” (1998), “The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World” (2000), “Philosophizing Art: Selected Essays” (2001), “The Body/Body Problem: Selected Essays” (2001), “The Philosophical Disenfranchisement of Art” (2004) and “Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life” (2007).
For more information about the event, contact VPA professor Robert Wysocki at rjwysock@syr.edu.
