Art is communication with beauty. Firstly, art is not art without any communication. One might indeed
create something entirely in his own universe/mind and get pleasure
from it. This might also be a very worthwhile activity. But still
it is not art. Mind you, I am not implying that the worth of art is only measured
by how many people see it or understand it. Far from it. I am
only saying that if no man, no angel, and no demon ever sees the
creation, then it is not art, it is simply a creation. Of course, only communication is not quite enough. Giving directions
to a stranger wishing to find the train station, you don't normally
care much about the artistic presentation. You merely want to
be clear and precise. Art has to have something to do with beauty. It might not be obvious
beauty, and it might not be universally recognized beauty, but
beauty nontheless. Some art makes progress by pointing out or creating beauty in
places and forms where it has not been seen before. When painters
first began to paint poor peasants and whores, it was an outrage.
How could anybody see anything interesting, not to mention beautiful,
in those places and subjects? And avant garde music makes music
out of strange sounds and noises that have not been heard in music
before. Note that "beautiful" does not necessarily mean "pretty". Pretty
is Beautiful's popular sister.
Art, definition One: