What Art Is

Bucking the critical trend, Danto, an influential critic and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Encounters and Reflections, attempts to offer something like a succinct and clear definition of art that is capable of spanning historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. This latest work relies heavily on his accomplished career, recapitulating some of his dominant arguments while also occasionally revising them or departing in new directions. The conclusion he reaches%E2%80%94that art is embodied meaning, and that the viewer adds to the creation of art through interpretation%E2%80%94is elegant in its clearheaded take on an endlessly difficult question. This definition is secondary, however, to the route Danto takes getting there, and his asides and far-reaching rhetoric can variously please, illuminate, and frustrate. He%E2%80%99s at his best when his attention is concentrated, such as with the extended consideration of the controversial restoration of the Sistine Chapel (he ultimately became a supporter of the process), and likewise at his weakest when he indulges in broad-stroked generalization, a tic that occasionally leads to unfortunate digressions on feminism and identity politics. As a critical memoir, however, tracing the particulars of a gifted mind%E2%80%99s lasting focus, Danto%E2%80%99s latest is a useful addition to a long career. (Mar.)