Art and its History

Abstract

The paper argues that something is art only if (i) it belongs to a
special kind of internal history and (ii) needs to be understood and appreciated
in the light of such history. This goes against both the traditional view
that art has a timeless, ahistorical essence and the historicist view that there
can be no ahistorical perspective for understanding art. The paper draws on
Hegel’s view that art needs to be understood through its history, but rejects
the idea that the history of art has an end in the double sense of a goal and an
end point. It also rejects Arthur Danto’s Hegel-inspired claim that the ahistorical
essence of art is revealed at the end of its history and opens the door to a
natural alliance between philosophers of art and art historians.