Explorations in Aesthetics: Duchamp’s Readymades, Warhol’s »Brillo Box«, and the Concept of Art

The focus of the present work is the art status of Duchamp’s Readymades and Warhol’s Brillo Box, and the claim that these works, because of their singular radicality, have initiated artistic and conceptual revolutions thereby changing the concept of art. The two first parts of the book are devoted to an analysis of the philosophical and art theoretical discourses these iconic works have engendered. Particular attention is paid to controversies concerning the interpretation and the significance of the works in question. In Part One, Thierry de Duve’s theory of art is discussed at some length. In Part Two, the focus is on Arthur Danto’s philosophy of art, inspired as it is by Warhol’s work. In Part Three, the philosophical debates concerning the definability of art are at the centre of attention. Some recent definitional proposals as well as criticisms of the definitional project are highlighted. In particular, Danto’s essentialist project is contrasted with Wittgenstein-inspired family resemblance approaches.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface * Acknowledgements * Part One. Duchamp, the Readymades and the Concept of Art * Introduction * 1. What is a Readymade? * 1. The Readymade and the readymade * 2. Signatures and Inscriptions * 3. Difficult Cases * 4. First readymades, Original Readymades and Replicas * 5. The Ghostly Bottle Rack * 6. On Defining the Readymade * 2. The Readymades as Art * 1. Duchamp on the Readymades * 2. Are the Readymades Art? * 3. Are the Readymades Anti-Art or Non-Art? * 4. Are the Readymades both Art and Non-Art? * Concluding Remarks * 3. Duchamp, de Duve and the Concept of Art * Introduction * 1. Art as a Proper Name * 2. Proper Names as Rigid Designators * 3. Name Giving and Baptism * 4. Aesthetic Judgments are Comparative * 5. De Duve’s Kantianism * Concluding Remarks * Part Two: Warhol, the Brillo Box and the Concept of Art * Introduction * 1. Danto’s Theory of Art * 1. Danto’s Quest for the Essence of Art * 2. The Definition of Art * 3. An Incomplete Definition * 4. Art as an Elastic Concept * 5. The Essence of Art and the History of Art * 6. Art and the Artworld * 7. Art Status and Reasons * 8. Art Outside the Artworld * 2. The Philosophy of the Brillo Box * Introduction * 1. Warhol’s Brillo Box and "the Brillo box scandal" * 2. Boxed Ideas * 3.What Boxes and Cans Signify * 4. Andy Warhol as Philosopher * 5. Commercial Art or Critical Art? * 6. Fine Art versus Commercial Art * 7. Duchamp’s and Warhol’s Originality * 3. Dantoesque Transfiguration * Introduction * 1. Transfiguration versus Transubstantiation * 2. Baptism versus Consecration * 3."Immanent Transfiguration" and Aesthetic Experience * 4. The Brillo Box versus Brillo box * 5. Transfigured Beds * 6. Art and the Religious Dimension * Concluding Remarks * Appendix. Danto and The Prime of Miss Brodie * Part Three: The Concept of Art * Introduction * 1. To Define or Not to Define * 2. Dissenting Voices * 3. Danto and Wittgenstein * 4. Wittgenstein and Family Resemblance Concepts * 5. Art and Family Resemblances * Appendix. How Brancusi’s Bird in Space Became Art * Bibliography * Plates * Index of Names *

About the Author :
Lars-Olof Åhlberg, professor emeritus in aesthetics. He was professor of aesthetics at the department of philosophy at Uppsala University (Sweden) 2000-2013 and president of the Nordic Society of Aesthetics 1997-2007.