What makes an art piece art?

It's always the viewer (or hearer, or taster, or. . .?) Artists are just viewers with an inside edge.

Despite all attempts to codify and define, art remains the thing that you point at when you say "Art"--at bottom a social activity, not a product.

A critic--they weren't mentioned in your question, but in the past they have at times been granted considerable authority to way what is, or is not, art--is a viewer who is good at communicating a certain perspective on art, one who can persuade others to see artworks in a certain way. If that 'way' adds to someone's appreciation of the work, if it makes their experience richer or deeper in some way, then we may say they are a good critic.

But what they do is not fundamentally different than any other viewer--they must experience, then react with imagination and sensitivity, allowing their world to be changed in the process. It's really that activity in which the art is 'made.

Anyone can judge whether they consider a piece of work art, it's very subjective. However it takes the passage of time for a piece of work to be considered a masterpiece.

Art is 100% subjective. What makes art art is that someone thinks it's art or calls it such.

I agree with Doc snow. Like beauty, art is in the eye of the beholder. What I would consider a masterpiece some one else might call it junk and vice-versa.

That in my opinion is the beauty of art.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.