Aphorisms for Artists by Walter Darby Bannard

Aphorism #2

Art is not “about.” Art is.

Things are defined by use. A work of art is a work of art because we call it a work of art, but it is not actually a work of art until we ask it to function as art so we can experience it as art.

If we ask it to be something else—illustration, decoration, political message, cover for a hole in the wall, or whatever, it becomes, for the moment, something else.

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