What Does It Mean For An Artwork To Communicate?

An Artist friend once said "Art to me is a language,  a means of communication. Which also means that any work that doesn't communicate is not art. And then the greater the communicative power, the greater the art. The lesser the communicative power, the lesser the art."

So what does it mean for an Artwork to communicate?

Have you seen Barnett Newman's plain blue painting that sold for $43.8 million?

Can you say it actually communicated it's purpose for creation to its buyer?

Let me answer that by sharing a story I just heard from an Artist.. Ogochukwu Ejiofor a.k.a Bullet Art