Analysis of the Definition and Meaning of Art to End it by Presenting the Style Matrix Method in Arthur Danto's Philosophy

The definition and meaning of the artwork have been accompanied by various ups and downs throughout history and philosophers' opinions about the nature of art have been different and antithetic. But in the contemporary era, our epistemological access to the meaning of art has expanded and become more precise, and the meaning of the artwork is partly determined by its historical context. Accordingly, Hegel's historicism allows us to change the meaning of the artwork with the evolution of art history. The main purpose of the research is to analyze the theories of Arthur Danto and his attempt to define art and the end of art. Danto initially proposed what he called the Style Matrix to explain the meaning of art, but later rejected it and replaced it with historicism. Art philosophy is closely tied to art history. The main question of the article is: How art is specified by definition? And if art embodies a meaning, what characteristics will it have in the world after the end of art? The result of this research, which is descriptive-analytical and based on library data, shows that: by tracing the history and philosophy of art from the beginning to the present century, Danto tried to simplify his definition of art into two principles: 1) art must have content or meaning, 2) art must embody that meaning in an appropriate way. And finally, by announcing the end of art, he reached a new understanding of art in the post-historic era.