An Interview with Noël Carroll - On Arthur Danto and Art Criticism

CUNY philosophy professor Noël Carroll sat down with me to discuss the thoughts of Arthur Danto on art criticism and the end of art. Dr. Carroll speaks about Danto’s influence on his own work and suggests a revised approach to considering art.
Questions:
00:13 - Who is Arthur Danto?
00:57 - Why should we be talking about Danto?
01:54 - What are Danto’s thoughts on criticism?
03:46 - How did Danto impact the nature of criticism?
07:12 - What does Danto mean by “the end of art” and how does it relate to his thoughts on criticism?
11:09 - What is the difference between “post-historical” art and “post-modern” art?
15:37 - Is there anything in the post-historical view of art that restricts art?
20:09 - Today do we see more post-historical or post-modern art being made by artists?
22:04 - Is there any form of art you find important that Danto did not consider?
24:37 - What initially attracted you to Danto’s ideas?
26:39 - How has Danto inspired your work?
29:21 - Is it difficult to differentiate between artworks that have meaning and those that do not?
31:07 - Do you have any criticism for Danto’s thoughts on criticism?
32:40 - What, to you, makes a good critic?
33:44 - Was Danto a good critic?
33:58 - With art, can we correct problems of fundamentalism that divide and provoke violence in the world? Can art help us find answers where other media cannot?
Image/Video Sources:
Arthur Danto: www.newphilosopher.com/wp-cont...
Brillo Box: www.farnsworthmuseum.org/educ...
John Cage: www.northcountrypublicradio.or...
Cindy Sherman: www.arthistoryarchive.com/arth...
Clement Greenberg: centralintelligenceart.blogspo...
Richard Wollheim: www.cheffins.co.uk/fineart/blo...
Tony Conrad - The Flicker: • Video

[@insahoffmann2437]

I totally enjoyed this interview and it clarified so many concerns for me as an artist in the modern world. I seem to hang in between tradition, postmodernism and now I discovered post-historical art. Thank you for sharing these insights.

[@robsonrodrigues1561]

This is an absolutely well-made interview. It is helping me a lot in my art criticism studies. Greetings from Brasil!

[@omunhvilag]

I knew him as a teacher privately and as a friend. We would see each other almost monthly from 1997 to 2013 at the time I moved with my wife Esther Pasztory after her retirement from Columbia to Maine, which Arthur knew, had visited quite often. I find it hard to speak about him even now he seems alive. I cannot find the words to speak of him as one would an abstraction.

[@wallace582RB]

Whoa this interview is quality. Well done.

[@michaelmcclure3383]

Excellent work, thank you.

[@jenalohin]

Amazing work! Congrats on interviewing Carroll, so glad I was able to find your video!

[@FrostyMVx]

Such an incredible philosopher

[@user-cf6vj8wk1h]

thank you so much for this video! its great! everything! the speaker the topic the lighting the questions

[@ishanvashishta7819]

I'm not a huge fan of when people attempt to conflate Arthur Danto the philosopher with Arthur Danto the art critic: I think they should be examined independently. Love hearing Carroll talk though!

[@ileanadeleon390]

Nice interview

[@deborapuac]

+Ileana de León Thank you! :)

[@lucianosimaslusimas3443]

Interesting!

[@lnbartstudio2713]

Wonderful interview. Can Brillo boxes be shown in anything other than reproductions of grocery stores in reptoductions of suburban neighborhoods? Certainly not in galleries. If the end of art then surely the end of art galleries...of a certain kind.

[@DeyvsonMoutinhoCaliman]

I have no idea who those people are, but I agree with everything he said. Once I heard a theory about the rise of modern art, it would be because the Soviet Union used "art" solely as a form of propaganda (the same thing those "historical critics" are trying to do). The USA anti-propaganda was saying that political propaganda in itself was a bad thing (although they had their propaganda, just look at Captain America). Rich people, feeling ashamed of funding blatant anti-communist propaganda, started funding modern art, because it was better the nothing about nothing than communist propaganda. Funny enough nowadays the left embrace modern art, which is as devoid of meaning as capitalism can get, and conservatives hate modern art because if it means nothing it is nothing but a waste of time. I don't know if any of this is true, but Arthur Danto was certainly onto something. I found this video because I don't believe photography is art, it is a technique about using a machine, if there is a real artist was the guy that made the machine. I was trying to find some support for this, and it seems Arthur Danton commented about the subject.

[@eligoitein6499]

the only useful thing I got from all this is his distinction btetween art"s :meaning:or :purpose{. But insofar as describing anythingt Danto himself had to say about art, no [nsights were delivered here beside the point mentioned innfirst sentence/This entire hour mentione no othet discussable art-subject beside Warhol's Brillo Boxes.. WTF

[@anthonydimichele837]

The importance of Andy Warhol's work? Robert Hughes, after meeting Warhol, said that he was one of the stupidest people he ever met. A man with nothing to say.

[@connordavey4422]

So art has just become philosophy?

[@simonstuddert-kennedy8854]

No, what Danto did was to apply the tools of critical analysis developed in the Western philosophical tradition to the work being produced by artists (especially Andy Warhol) at the time that he, Danto, was thinking and writing about this. His conclusions simply gave us a different way of understanding art - including all the art that began in the early Renaissance and ended with Warhol.

[@luiginoto3352]

Brillo Box is NOT art, Warhole was a leading intellectual and socialite but an artist he was not, by a long stretch. You wipe your $, you take that, you put it in a frame and you call that art? That's the death of art alright.

[@bumblebill1]

This is a lot of pretentious nonsense. Peop[e trying to distinguish themselves as important scholars or thinkers. Another good explanation of what is being said is "BS" Art is in the Brain of the beholder. Has anybody learned anything here about art? What is art? Art is what I say it is. What is god?, What is love? Anybody needing intellectual explanations of art is missing the art of art. This all is meaningless.

[@stevenp.6062]

Have always loved Danto’s writings . From an introverted deep thought artist philosopher. I love Rosalind Krause too!

[@bumblebill1]

That isthe most common sense statement so far.