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of iconoclasm and rebellionthe painting created must be recognized as a painting-as-such, expanding limits while simultaneously existing within them. Art is not relativistic, everything created is not "art," and it's value lies not just in the eye of the beholder but in the ability of the completed piece to exist in a recognizable form, the product of a specific intentioneven if this form is new. An apt example of this process may be viewed in cubism. The picture was created, and then the form was created by first viewers recognition and then by expansion through the efforts of other artistsBraque's The Portuguese, e.g.to work within that form. This is similar to the question regarding falling trees and ears to hear: for art to be art it must be recognized as art, by people who can recognize art. Acknowledgment of formagain, even if the painting creates a new formis a key to validity, as pertains to the question, "what is painting."

In summation: modernism is valuable as it allowed for a greater expansion of forms of painting. This expansion allowed us to move from matters of the obvious to contact with more essential aspects of painting; by expanding the parameters, we become more aware of just what painting is. And, as artistic creation is a function unique to humans (or at least primatesI'll leave ape art for another paper), modernistic expansion allows us to also better understand that most common and perplexing of eventshuman nature.

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