Abstract

This phenomenon of the conceptual elusiveness of art quite certainly has a complex causation. The internal richness and intricacy of any given art-work; the profuse varieties of art-works taken as a collection; the occurrence of different art-forms, such as poetry, music, painting, and so forth; the existence of a plurality of styles within each such form; the complexity of the aesthetic experience that we derive from art; the different and often contradictory insistences of artists regarding the intentions, the methods, and the outcomes that are realized in their creative undertakings and embodied in their works; the manifold human uses to which art is put--all of these contribute to the difficulty of reaching a coherent theoretical explanation of the world and the life of art.