What is the best way to understand the recent development of American art? An older tradition of commentary focuses on the role of tradition, noting how each new form of painting is rooted in a long history. But Jack Bankoswky and some other art writers discussing Andy Warhol have adapted a different approach, arguing that his art breaks radically with tradition. Alexander Nehamas's recent book, "The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault" offers a very suggestive way of resolving these issues. A painter, so his account suggests, can practice the art of living and so turn his life into a work of art. In that way, it might be said, an artist like Warhol can become an aesthete. I argue that this way of thinking helps us better grasp the goals of education in the present day art school.