Representation as “Embodied Meaning “from Arthur Coleman Danto View (A Case Study of Jeff Koon's Works)

The development of modern art and contemporary art criticized the concept of representation, which dominated art philosophy for nearly two millennia. Accordingly, the classical conception of representation was no longer able to analyze ‎the new artifacts that emerged from the formation of modern art. ‎ Arthur Danto ‎ is among the twentieth-century art philosophers reevaluated ‎‎"representation" taking into account contemporary art. ‎ The current paper aims at explaining Danto's conception of art as a representation based on the book “The Transfiguration of the Commonplace”. Danto believes that in today's art we see the emergence of real objects in artworks and other art is no longer merely the representation of reality but the real objects themselves that have become artworks. He views artworks as symbolic expressions that embody themselves. Thus, the current paper explains why Danto proposed this theory and stating how he devised another interpretation of the concept of representation and explained that concept distinct from its classical conception. The importance of Danto's view in this regard is to examine contemporary art samples based on a new interpretation of the concept. The importance of Danto's view in this regard is to examine contemporary art samples based on a new interpretation of the concept. This article also mentions a case study of contemporary artist Jeff Koons.