Derisive term used to describe (usually) avant-garde art that either revels in "shock value" or extreme cleverness. Exactly what constitutes art wank is a point of debate. Some people experience John Cage's 4'33" as a glorious conceptual piece, others see it a joke, or a purely academic exercise.

It's a fairly safe bet that any work of art which spends more time explaining itself than simply being a work of art (be it sonic or visual), is probably art wank. If you hear a series of god awful noises followed by a lengthy explanation that these noises were somehow "dedicated to the rainforest", you have been in the middle of art wank.

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