Arthur C. Danto's 'What Art Is' Explores Philosophy Through Warhol, Photography, and the Sistine Chapel

Arthur C. Danto's 2013 book 'What Art Is' presents a philosophical investigation into art's definition, arguing that art embodies meaning rather than providing aesthetic experience. The work examines Andy Warhol's 1964 Brillo Boxes as a central case study in ontological debates. Danto references historical figures including Plato, Kant, and Heidegger while analyzing movements like Primitivism and Cubism that disrupted Albertian representation. The book contains chapters on photography, the human body, and the restoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Danto makes provocative claims, suggesting photography requires minimal skill and that contemporary art rarely prioritizes aesthetic experience. He traces art-historical discontinuities through figures including Picasso, Duchamp, Beuys, Rauschenberg, Cage, and Warhol. The text includes personal anecdotes about gallstones alongside discussions of Leibniz's 1714 Monadology and Christ's suffering. Danto ultimately defines art as 'the embodiment of ideas or... meaning,' emphasizing varied modes of embodiment across works. This leaves interpretation to viewers while rejecting art as an indefinable category. The book was published in May 2013.