Role of the Artist

591 Words3 Pages
What is the role of the artist? Art reflects reality at the very least. Art is humanity’s attempts to recreate reality, create reflections of reality, and reflections of imagination & creativity. The artist creates the art based off influences of society, whether it is cultural, philosophical, political, religious, or economic. The role of the artist is help provide a historical background, portray their personal opinions, and to provide entertainment to their audience. French philosopher and social critic, Marcel Proust, once wrote that "the real voyage of self-discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Artists are the new eyes of the world that allow us to see entirely new landscapes and possibilities. I consider an artist successful if they make the audience see the world in a different way. By opening up the eyes of the readers, the artist is helping humanity understand reality in a broader sense. An artist can help record history for future generations through their artwork, specifically in literature. For example, we read Sophocles’ Antigone to understand the culture from 441 B.C.E. It was obvious that women had no societal status as inferred when reading. “You foul creature – you’re worse than any woman” (Sophocles, 39). There is various historical information you can discover when reading between the lines. The artist, Sophocles, successfully carried out his role as an artist in this piece of literature. Every story has themes and morals that can be discovered when reading between the lines of the text. The themes that authors choose to incorporate into the literature are directly caused by their personal political and social views on society. In Antigone, Sophocles presents a major theme of unavoidable tragedy. Choosing to write a story with a theme such as this makes one assume that the author has
Open Document