This paper, or at least its system of ideas, has the sort of three-part structure typical of Hegel’s thinking: we start out identifying the aim and value of art with beauty, we advance by making art that avoids beauty, and then we see how beauty can be play a role in art, but in a new way. The term kalliphobia, which means literally “fear of beauty,” refers to the second stage in this development.

• The first stage is presented only indirectly via the second, which is a reaction to it. Danto presents the latter through the ideas of Dieter Roth (1930-1998) and the post-WWI Dada movement, but the wider significance of the rejection of beauty can be seen in his discussion of Matisse and Roger Fry on p. 27.

• Danto’s discussion of J. L. Austin (1911-1960) prepares the way for the third stage, but what is perhaps the crucial idea comes earlier, when he claims that “Beauty is always easy to see” (p. 28). For, if seeing beauty can be like seeing colors, beauty can be part of the material of art that is given meaning, and that is what allows Danto to distinguish internal from external beauty.

• His development of the idea of internal beauty lies largely in examples, so you should definitely think about the ones he discusses on the last couple of pages. (Maria Bashkirtseff, 1858-1884, was a painter who is also known for her diary; her last words might be rendered as: “Mama, mama, life is nevertheless so beautiful,” where ‘nevertheless’ is the translation of the term pourtant that Danto calls attention to.)