In my not so humble opinion art has nothing to do with beauty ,fun or quality. Also art is
not subjective. For something to be art you don't have to like or respect it.
It's very important to understand a difference between art, artistry, design and craft. Unfortunately English language kinda fails at this, and today everyone gets the label of "artist".
I die a little inside every time i hear some presenter saying " And the next artist performing on stage is Rihana (or any other pop star).
No, Rihana is a singer. The composer who composed her songs is the artist.
Just like Merill Strip is an actress and the director of her movies is the artist.
Also even if it's the best looking car ever made, it's not piece of art, it's a piece of good design.
But to answer your question. What is art?
Art is an attempt to communicate emotions and ideas in an empathic manner, by making you "feel" and "understand" them as if they were your own.
Let me elaborate.
I can say or write down a simple sentence, "Being greedy is bad" and while most people will agree with this nobody would consider it art.
I could write a 10 page long study on how and why being greedy is a bad thing and still most people would agree with me, and still most people wouldn't consider that art.
However a book in which main theme is greed(and there are plenty to choose from) will be consider art. Why? Because that book will not only transfer the message about greed being bad, but will also make you understand what greed is and
why it's bad.
A good book will make you feel greed without making you greedy. That's art.
A better example would be paintings. In fact it's a prefect example for understanding the difference between being good at something and actual art.
Imagine the best piece of fan art you can. Some dude in some cool pose, with incredible colours and attention to details. Anatomically speaking, its perfect, and it can match and surpass the bravura of any renaissance painter....and yet it's not art.
It's devoid of any true meaning or depth. There is no idea or message behind it. It exist simply because it's cool and to show of the skill of the painter.
This is art:
First time i saw this picture i didn't know it's name or who painted it.
The first thing i thought of, the first emotion it aroused in me was that of melancholy.
I was absolutely delighted when i found out the name of the painting, and it will forever remain my favorite piece of true art.
Art =/= beauty
Art =/= quality
An example of this would be a cheese love song. It's cheese and shallow, but there's still emotion behind it (however cheese and shallow) and that emotion of, usually, broken hart is easily transferred.
P.S. Bah spoiler tags not working for some reason!