Theory 1: Art's Biggest Secret, from The Painter Who Lived Inside the Painting / Not Art Theory by Everybody the Artist
Art is a word that means very different things. It means different things to different people, at different times, and in different places. For that reason, works of art can't actually define art. Art isn't something we can explain by example because there are no all-inclusive examples, because artwork is infinite.
Let’s Think about it this way: artists love to break the rules, right? Every time someone tries to tell us what art is, based on the characteristics of things that they accept to be art, we go and start a movement and make art different just to prove them wrong.
So, if artwork fails to define art, how then do we explain art?
Art's big secret is that art isn't actually any '“thing.” Art is a kind of experience. This becomes apparent when we start asking ourselves this one simple question:
"What is not art?"
