There are objects in my environment. Not all are works of art, but some are. Somehow, my attitude towards the works of art must be appropriate, and if no appropriate attitude from the viewer is to be had, then the work of art suffers.

In other words, the work of art needs to be appreciated.  As I look around the room I see various objects.  My watch (a nice enough watch, but not a work of art), my belt, a compact disc, various papers, and books.  When I look over at the paintings on the wall, I must, if I am to appreciate them as art, adopt more than just a casual approach.  We want to consider how it is that the non-creator reacts to the work of art.There are at least two ways, it seems.  There are some works of art that require a performance.  In such cases the performer is the necessary public that the art needs in order to be complete.  When I go to the opera, the opera is performed, and we sit and watch in the way we are supposed to watch.  Yes, keep your cell phone off, but more than that, the audience is supposed to be engaged.  We are supposed to follow the story, and as well recognize when the performers are worthy of special applause, etc.  So, two sides to the public with respect to the work of art.  The performers, and the audience, and both are somehow necessary to complete the work, to bring it to life.

There are times when performers are trying to fool an audience (a con game for example), but a true artistic performance is not that.  No one on either side is fooled by anything.  The performers are trying to present what the artist produced, the audience is trying to appreciate both the work and the performance.  This is not done by giving up and being fooled.  No one needs to think that the woman on stage singing the role of Violetta really has tuberculosis.  Apparently some of the early audiences for La Traviata had trouble appreciating the suffering of Violetta, and the singing of the soprano.  Tuberculosis being rather incongruous with such singing.  But there is something silly here, what?

There are many ways of being an audience, or performer, and all of these are ways of providing the public that the work of art needs if it is to become an aesthetic object.  There are ways of engaging a painting or sculpture, or play, novel, or poem.  For any of these we can be an audience, or a performer.  We do our part, and are rewarded with a work of art, or better to say, rewarded with whatever a work of art can bring to us.  After all, we are discussing the work and its public.  The public provides performers and audiences (witnesses both).  The work of art ought to provide something as well.