These sort of phases have always bothered me.
Art if about whatever you want it to be. My kid painting a dinosaur that looks like a scribble is art. A masterful recreation of a photograph in oil paint is art. T shaped lines on a page that have 'hidden meaning' is art.
Portraying someone realistically is as much art as throwing paint at a canvas with a particular meaning in mind is art.
It's all art. There's nothing wrong with enjoying art that doesn't have some hidden meaning. I love realism for the skill involved. I love abstract art for the ideas involved and the thought it provokes.
Enjoyment of visual art is entirely subjective, you like it or you don't, but it's still art.
There is so much of a "gatekeeping" sense when it comes to the question of "what is art", especially in the sense that "if you don't understand it your not appreciating it". You are allowed to like it just because of the way it looks.