Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical
value-judgments. Man’s profound need of art lies in the fact that his
cognitive faculty is conceptual, i.e., that he acquires knowledge by means of
abstractions, and needs the power to bring his widest metaphysical abstractions
into his immediate, perceptual awareness. Art fulfills this need: by means of
a selective re-creation, it concretizes man’s fundamental view of himself and
of existence. It tells man, in effect, which aspects of his experience are to
be regarded as essential, significant, important. In this sense, art teaches
man how to use his consciousness. It conditions or stylizes man’s
consciousness by conveying to him a certain way of looking at existence.