For those not put off by this freedom, Mr Danto is a wise and encouraging guide.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism

It should now be easy to see why Warhol was such a lightning bolt for Mr Danto.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism

It would be attacking philosophy itself to point out that Mr Danto is better at picking off bad answers than providing his own.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism

Actually, according to Mr Danto, Greenberg marked the end of a tradition a period when people still thought you could say how art should look.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism

Mr Danto has chosen a hard part for himself.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism

But that is how Mr Danto would want things.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism: Art��s dead; long live art | The

Mr Danto took a tougher, more interesting line.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism: Art��s dead; long live art | The

Mr Danto, a jolly, bearded man with a self-deflating sense of humour and an old-fashioned taste in clothes, is the last sort of person you would think of as an authority-figure in the world of contemporary art.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism

Though a lover of modern art, Mr Danto is firm with its more formalist and doctrinaire champions, particularly Clement Greenberg, a critic who dominated the New York art world at mid-century, much as Mr Danto, with a far quieter voice, stands out now.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary-art criticism: Art��s dead; long live art | The