I took your last comment as a dismissal of an entire art movement for being pretentious, ironically sounds pretty pretentious, so I made a goof of it.
Knowing you’re railing against art dealers and collectors in general, I get your point and share the sentiment to an extent. Personally, I think placing high value on arts preserves them longer than they could be otherwise. The global museum tours make them more accessible and raise funds for art programs while doing so. Sure there’s a lot of bad actors in any field but I don’t think the art trade is necessarily a net negative for society.
Good question with a pretty ambiguous answer for anyone that’d try to answer.
For me it’s a combination of skill, intention, and impact. Like a shaky handed sharpie tag on a bus stop isn’t much of anything, but when it says, “kill your local heroin dealer” that’s impactful. The shaky lines start to show the styling they had intended but can’t capture anymore. I’d call that art even though it was painted over a week later.