Artists are the preservers of cultural heritage. Artists can be a painter, a writer, a poet, an architect, a singer, an actor, etc. there is no particular definition of an artist, however, the importance of an artist in a society is quite noticeable. Artists are living force of any society, they preserve the humane feature of a particular society and safe it from becoming stagnant.
Artist is necessary to motivate the continuity of humanistic principles in a society. In present materialistic world, people are becoming clog of big machinery, working lifelessly for monetary benefits. An artist makes people aware of the reality of the prevailing viciousness of the society. A true artist is the one who divorces himself from the prevailing attitude of the society and challenges conformism with his non-conformist attitude. Artists imbue masses with revolutionary ideas and motivate them to adopt a more humanistic attitude towards life. Artists are those who embrace new ideas and explore them for the benefit of the society and for the betterment of human condition. These genius souls do not care about themselves being rejected by the authorities or their fellow people. All they care about is acknowledging the truth without conforming to the set rules of the particular society.
Behind every remarkable revolution, that has altered the face of history, there were artists, writers, and poets. French revolution would not have been possible without the revolutionary writings of Jacques Rousseau. He played a major role in the enlightenment of French and English people and in the development of modern political and educational thought. Likewise, the renaissance was ignited by the revolutionary artist and writers.
Moreover, artists engrave their contemporary periods on the pages of history. Chaucer’s Canterbury tales is a perfect depiction of 13th-century English society. The vices and virtues of that period have been perfectly recorded in his masterpiece. Shakespeare’s plays likewise depict the prevailing attitude of Elizabethan age. Charles Dickens perfectly presents the plight of poor people especially poor children of Victorian Era through his novels. As every artist belongs to a particular period, his works intentionally or unintentionally allude to that period as a context.
An artist is not a historian whose work is to record the history. He does not allude to his contemporary period for informing forthcoming generation about it. He rather values the important humanistic aspect of a particular society. Artists are the torchbearers who enlighten the minds of masses and teach them to differentiate between what is accepted and what is right. They motivate their fellow people to do what is right, whether it is accepted or not.
