Abstract

There are good reasons to believe that "making a statement," in a broader sense than Danto's, is a "necessary" condition of art. But phenomenological analysis tends to show that an artwork must be "aesthetic" as well as meaningful. Otherwise, what the artist has to say could not be distinguished from many "non"artistic forms of communication. Moreover, its meaning must "subserve" the aesthetic function of the artwork, in a role best described as "significance"." "Art" must therefore be defined in terms of "the creation of significant aesthetic objects"