The Madonna of the Future finds Danto at the point where all the vectors of the art world intersect: those of traditional painting, Pop art, mixed media, and installation art; those of art and philosophy; those of the specialist who brings theory to bear on the work and the viewer who appreciates it primarily visually.

Arthur C. Danto is Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Columbia University and art critic for The Nation. Among his many books are Playing with the Edge: The Photographic Achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe (1995), Connections to the World: The Basic Concepts of Philosophy (1997), Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective (1998), and Philosophizing Art (1999), all from California.

"Danto is probably the most erudite writer regularly reviewing contemporary art, at least in English, and maybe in any language. Even when disagreeing with his taste or not quite accepting his judgments, I am comforted by the fact that he is out there seeing things and formulating opinions."—Daniel Birnbaum, Bookforum

"Danto offers a kind of access to art that few other critics do."—Sarah Boxer, New York Times Book Review

"He has no peer in American art criticism. . . . He's the one contemporary thinker about art that every intellectual interested in the subject must read."—Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Danto...is rare and anomalous in being the least cynical of critics. For him, the deeper, more encompassing explanation is almost axiomatically the truer, more important one."—Nicholas Jenkins, Newsday

"Danto, who started out as a painter, is acutely aware of the differences between art and the philosophy of art . . . . [He is] one of our most thoughtful and stimulating writers on art."—ARTnews