my understanding of (modern) art is that it's an avenue to explore/uncover cutting-edge and uncomfortable ideas, which is why it's often described as being "edgy". it can be seen as empathetic insofar as it makes us confront our own emotions toward others in relation to those others.

and the "goodness" of art is about consensus around the level of interestingness of the ideas behind it (ideally; of course, social considerations make that murky).

so it's not art if there is no interesting ideas behind it, or if people find it banal. if i hold up my starbucks coffee cup and say it represents hegemony and should be considered high art, well, no one will really care.