Response to Jillian's Significant or Irrelevant?

Do you think that artwork created for an art class or as an assignment should still be considered art?

I do think that artwork created for an art class or as an assignment should still be considered art. Tolstoy would have said that, despite the mandatory nature of an art assignment, you are still achieving that level of communication - you are still portraying a specific emotion to the public. If the public recieves that emotion, then the source of your motivation, mandated or otherwise, is irrelevant.

This question makes me think of the relationship between publishers and authors. More often than not, the publishers sets deadlines for the author. "You must have written 100 pages by this date, 200 by that date..." etc. There is a time limit, an outside prompt, involved in the creation of the author's works, but the works are still literature, still art.

Is there a direct relation between the quality of artwork if it is asked for at a certain time, in a certain way, and art that is made simply for art's sake?