The End Of Art?

With Danto's works being translated into Chinese, "The End of Art" has become one of the pop topics in the circles of western aesthetics and artistic theory of the time. This trend has made strong impact on art and literature, and up to the present, it has made people puzzled. How to deal with this situation? How did this trend come into being? Does it indicate the end of art? It is urgent for us to have the sober attitude, solve the problem and give the theoretical response combing with the reality.As an analytical philosopher, Danto's theory is restricted to analytical philosophy, though he attempts to associate his theory with some wider concepts of culture and history. He lingers between the two philosophical trends so that his standpoint is splitted. It has decided that he can not uncover the essence of art ultimately.Danto's "The End of Art" is an echo of Hegel's issue of the end of art, so he gets into a theoretical system of the philosophy of art of Hegel-Heidegger-Adorno-Danto. He continues the systematic idealistic mistake of Hegel's aesthetics.Danto has not repeated Hegel's viewpoint simply, but he has considered art in close relation to the status of the art in the medium and late term of the twentieth century. Especially, he has endowed Pop Art with epoch-making significance, and it inaugurates art's own philosophical self-consciousness so that art comes to an end. Combing with two philosophical disenfranchisements of art in history, Danto illuminates his view about the essence of art supported by himself; combing with three developmental models about the history of art, he demonstrates his view about the history of art; in addition, he predicts the prospect of art after "the end of art".His perspective of post-historical objective pluralism is pessimistic about the fate of art, while Hegel's viewpoint is optimistic about the future of art.The theory of "The End of Art" is significant for the study of the essence of art, the history of art and aesthetics. Its theoretical value and significance are as below: it enlightens us to think about the essence of art and beauty further, posts the relation between the tradition and innovation of art, makes us cautious about the status of art nowadays, and indicates the prospect of art. The article concludes: art exists because of human and also for human. Art will exist so long as human beings exist. Art will not end. The end of art is a fresh start of a new life of art, while the dusk of art is right before the dawn art. In a new century, art will go to an ever more prosperous future.