Originally delivered as the prestigious "Mellon Lectures on the Fine Arts", these writings cover art history, pop art, 'people's art,' the future role of museums, and the critical contributions of Clement Greenberg - who helped make sense of modernism for viewers over two generations ago through an aesthetics-based criticism. Tracing art history from a mimetic tradition (the idea that art was a progressively more adequate representation of reality) through the modern era of manifestos (when art was defined by the artist's philosophy), Danto shows that it wasn't until the invention of Pop art that the historical understanding of the means and ends of art was nullified.Even modernist art, which tried to break with the past by questioning the ways of producing art, hinged on a narrative. Traditional notions of aesthetics can no longer apply to contemporary art, argues Danto. Instead he focuses on a philosophy of art criticism that can deal with perhaps the most perplexing feature of contemporary art: that everything is possible.



![Rubin, Rick MUSIC Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: A Way of Being [2023] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/rubin-rick-rick-rubin-the-creative-act-a-way-of-being-2023-hardback-56888283332947_{width}x.jpg?v=1719073387)

![Moorhead, Joanna ART Joanna Moorhead: The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington [2017] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/moorhead-joanna-joanna-moorhead-the-surreal-life-of-leonora-carrington-2017-paperback-57654797533523_{width}x.jpg?v=1727909581)
![Laing, Olivia LITERARY CRITICISM Olivia Laing: Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency [2021] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/laing-olivia-olivia-laing-funny-weather-art-in-an-emergency-2021-paperback-52950980428115_{width}x.jpg?v=1700130734)
![Geis, Patricia BARGAIN ART New Patricia Geis: Meet the Artist Vincent van Gogh: Meet the Artist! [2015] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/geis-patricia-patricia-geis-meet-the-artist-vincent-van-gogh-meet-the-artist-2015-hardback-9781616894566-58847872483667_{width}x.jpg?v=1726818615)