Beauty and Politics

Abstract

This chapter discusses Arthur Danto’s contribution to the acclaimed return of beauty that had been taking place since the nineties and the significant role of politics in his view. Beauty was, for Danto, an aesthetic quality among others, since the legacy of the avant-garde turned beauty into a mere option for artists. In The Abuse of Beauty, Danto took interest in this quality as a contribution to art criticism and labelled “internal” the beauty intended to play a role in conveying a work’s meaning and, therefore, required by its critical interpretation. Nonetheless, in line with the avant-gardist rejection of beauty for moral and political reasons, Danto thought that the emotional effects of beauty, incapable of revolting and outraging people, still seriously limited the option of beauty in actively political contemporary art. The chapter explores the possibility of an “angry beauty” that might overcome such stigma.