I believe what the quote suggests, and that you may be missing here, is that the experience of art is subjective, not objective. There can be no “art” in its truest sense without the mind of an observer. For art is interpretation, individual, subjective. Without an eye for the deeper meaning and substance in form, there can be no art. Objects are form and pattern only, but even in that there is the completion of the creative process.

In 1954, Schrödinger said;

The world is a construct of our sensations, perceptions, memories. It is convenient to suggest that it exists objectively on its own. But it certainly does not become manifest by it’s mere existence.

In the tree falling in the wood example, it may be accurate to say there is movement of some sort, fluctuations in something we call space, but there is only the manifestation of sound if there are ears to hear it. Likewise with the visual aspect of the tree falling; it falls only if there are eyes to see it fall. After the apparent fact, there is only a tree on the ground which we can only presume has fallen. All observed phenomena are functions of the human nervous system interacting with the environment.

So long story short, the quote you used is accurate, at least from this nervous system’s subjective perspective. 😬