George Dickie, “A Tale of Two Artworlds”

George Dickie, “Defining Art,” American Philosophical Quarterly 6, no. 3 (July 1969): 253-256.

Descriptive use of “work of art” indicates that a thing belongs to a certain category of objects
“Artifactuality” as the genus of art (but what exactly is artifactuality? Dickie does not elaborate)
Art can be defined even if all or some of its subconcepts cannot be (painting, novel, tragedy)
In addition to artifactuality, a second, social property – non-exhibited, relational
No guarantee that current conceptions bear any resemblance to historical conceptions
What we do with certain objects (ie: works of art)
“(1) an artifact upon which (2) some society or some sub-group of a society has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation.” [Later version: “A work of art in the classificatory sense is (1) an artifact (2) a set of the aspects of which has had conferred upon it the status of candidate for appreciation by some person or persons acting on behalf of a certain social institution (the artworld).”]
Only a candidate, not necessarily appreciated
Can be conferred by a single person (often the artist)? Perhaps in a preliminary, small-scale sense
More broadly, an artifact acquires status within the system of the artworld
The (aesthetic) appreciation characteristic of experiences of artworks: “in experiencing the qualities of a thing one finds them worthy or valuable” (applies to all kinds of artworks)
“Official” status of candidate for appreciation is conferred by the artworld – authority (however scattered, heterogeneous and ambiguous that authority might be)
A certain institutional setting
Artifactuality is acquired at the same time as status of candidate for appreciation (two distinct properties)
“It all depends what is done with the paintings.”
This theory 1) doesn't presume “good” art (value-neutral); 2) is not overloaded; 3) is not based on any metaphysical/unempirical theory; 4) is broad enough to cover all things generally considered art without strain; 5) accounts for the specific practices of the artworld;
“A work of art is an object of which someone has said, 'I consider this object a work of art.'”