From Sea to Square to Sea

Abstract

Chapter 3 asks when and how Danto became acquainted with the Red Sea anecdote. It sifts through his many responses to critics, artists, and earlier writers to explain why he designed his thought experiment with images that were red and square. The explanation continues to rest with his commitment to an emancipation narrative drawn from his American times, of which the result for art’s concept was not a partial but a full inclusion. By stretching the red and by stretching the square, he sought the analytical terms to admit all art to his Promised Land from sea to shining sea. Toward its end, the chapter introduces an art-historical and literary material to prepare for the broader enquiry into the Red Sea Passage and its anecdote.