I imagine explaining a work of art to my grandmother in five minutes, and if I can't explain it in five minutes, then it's too obtuse or esoteric.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In any great art, you create a world, and you invite people into that world, and hopefully, it's fleshed out enough and you've explained it well enough.
There is a deep question whether the possible meanings that emerge from an effort to explain the experience of art may not mask the real meanings of a work of art.
Art is about the messy and marvelous business of coming to your senses - and also, to the senses of the world.
Art is essentially communication. It doesn't exist in a vacuum. That's why people make art, so other people can relate to it.
Whether art is defined as a representation of or response to reality, it demands an intense engagement with things we haven't managed to understand fully.
Art is the provocation for talking about enigma and the search for sense in human life. One can do that by telling a story or writing about a fresco by Giotto or studying how a snail climbs up a wall.
Art is all in the details.
Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
The thing about art for me is that you can go on theorising your work forever, because it's open to interpretation.
What is art but a way of seeing?