ABSTRACT
Absence art includes artworks (paintings, sculptures, performances) that feature absences as aesthetic objects. Absence art is generally regarded as an important form of art and has attracted considerable investments. However, there is a major problem with absence art. Given the nature of the objects it features, absence art cannot exist. Absences lack perceptible features and therefore cannot be objects of aesthetic appreciation. So, when people buy absence art, they are in fact buying nothing. This chapter identifies and unpacks a philosophical problem with absence art and offers a solution by showing how absences can acquire aesthetic properties through perception. An upshot of this account is that, contrary to common opinion, absence art is not inherently a form of conceptual art, and that there can be formal absence art.
