I came across this wonderful BBC documentary from 1972(!) that talks about what art is, and how to look at art in a pretty interesting way. It’s a good watch, unfortunately there are no legal ways to watch this if you’re not in the UK (as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong). There are some snippets available here that do give you a taste of the program, but it’s worth watching in full^[1].

Some takeaways:

• There is a difference between being nude, and being naked. Being nude is for somebody else to take a look at. Naked is just you being yourself. There is a wonderful segment in Episode 2 where panel of women talk about women in art.
• There’s a bunch of really good observations in Episode 1, but what really stood out is how children could discern something from a painting that adults, busy analysing its deeper meanings, couldn’t.

^[1] Cough. One site that may help.