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Full Idea
The ideal theory of Croce and Collingwood says art is first an inner intuition or expression of the artist, resulting from a particular process of organisation and unification, which can be externalised in public form.
Gist of Idea
The ideal theory says art is an intuition, shaped by a particular process, and presented in public
Source
Richard Wollheim (Art and Its Objects [1968], 22)
Book Ref
Wollheim,Richard: 'Art and Its Objects' [Penguin 1975], p.52
A Reaction
[compressed] As stated this doesn't sound very controversial or 'ideal'. I take it the theory is intended to be more platonist than this expression of it suggests. I think the idea that it is an 'expression' of the artist is wrong.