Think of a work of art in 3 layers, strata or zones even. Running from top to bottom:
The top layer is the seen one, the final outcome, the actual work of art and its content and your experience of it.
The middle one is the fattest one; this has everything related to its making in there: the logistics such as materials used, working space, time taken, any subject matter worked from, any narratives chosen to respond to, depicted symbolism, the mixing and making, the critiques and the general to and fro-ing of decision-making and so on.
The bottom layer is basically the intent, the driving force - this is the layer that even the artist cannot fully explain. In fact this is the true (quantum layer) energy of the making. This is where the compulsion to make really comes from.
The middle layer is the area of interest to the overwhelming majority of critics and indeed artists. It is the most accessible and easiest to discuss, appraise and explain. Yet the better artists are the ones who are trying to get through this layer as readily as possible. These artists do not care about subject matter, they will find a set-up in which to make and generally get on with it. They are driven and as such their content has a more urgent and even primordial quality; one which transcends any subject (should it have even been present - see great historical figurative art) or operates without the need for the subject by dealing with the actualities of the materials in the most forthright and integral way. Even the greatest artists from the past who is intellectually tuned to the middle layer is still essentially controlled more by the bottom layer. A good example would be Classical Greek sculpture - yes we know it was painted up to resemble people and characters in a life-like imitating way, yet it was realised as form before that, the painting is merely artifice, obligatory finishing. As with all great work, the work is often complete BEFORE any finishing - even through the regarded decision-making of the artist. Take an artist like Cézanne and look at his late works - he grasps this and holds off with remarkable visual restraint, allowing the raw canvas to speak. It’s not about finish, it’s about completeness.