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Unnatural Wonders: Essays from the Gap Between Art and Life.
Danto, Arthur C. (author).
Feb. 2005. 400p. Farrar, hardcover, $27 (0-374-28118-1). 700.
REVIEW.
First published February 15, 2005 (Booklist).
Ever curious about the interplay between art and life, philosopher and art-critic Danto approaches each work of art, exhibition, and brain-teasing art-generated issue with a puzzle-solvers’ delight. Knowledgeable, lively, and omnivorous, Danto has been covering art for the Nation for 20 years, writing essays notable for their sophistication and warmth. His latest collection covers the first three years of the twenty-first century and focuses primarily on art’s infiltration into life and art’s deliberate separation from beauty. Danto makes unexpected yet fertile connections, beginning his enlightening consideration of South African artist William Kentridge, for instance, with a visit to Matisse, and introducing Barnett Newman via Henry James. Danto’s analyses of Barbara Kruger and Gerhard Richter are crisp and invigorating. He is quite frank about the mystification generated by Matthew Barney’s Cremaster cycle. And his musings on art in the wake of 9/11 are incisive and moving. In art, Danto sees a response to the times and an expression of the human spirit, an evolution of thought and an embodiment of being. — Donna Seaman
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