Challenging paintings of rat or tar? (8,3)
I believe the answer is:
abstract art
'tar?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'challenging paintings of rat' is the wordplay.
'challenging paintings' becomes 'abstract' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'of' indicates an anagram (the answer comes from or 'of' the letters).
'rat' with letters rearranged gives 'art'.
'abstract'+'art'='ABSTRACT ART'
'or' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for abstract art that I've seen is " Nonrepresentational paintings, sculpture etc".)