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Question:

What is the responsibility of the artist?

Do artists need to be actively "engaged" in the world around them, communicating, what they feel is, important content. Or, can they merely express themselves, or make "art for art's sake"?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

As an artist, part of me wants to cringe and yell "eek!" when I read the word _responsibility_ in your question yet another part of me wants to stand up and yell "YES! Artists DO have a responsibility!"
I say "eek" because the word responsibility creates a limited working environment. One "job" of an artist is to critically analyze language and its use. Responsibility would limit the freedom of expression and create a sense of functionality about art. That would pose the question--Is art functional?
I think artists do have a responsibility to posit questions in their culture, in their environment, or in the world. They also have a responsibility to keep art going...many politicians and those "interested" in the education system want to take the arts out of the schools. They think that dabbling in paint, charcoal, pastels, music, etc. is a "waste of valuable time that could be used for other more educational purposes." So, yes, artists do have at least some responsibility to communicate what they feel is important (whatever that might be).
However, some art just IS. The art speaks for itself (sometimes in ways the artist never realized) or does not speak. Some artists never intend for their art to
communicate...they just create, set their creation aside, and move on to a new project. So, some art is just for its own sake.
I think an artist needs to have a balance of communicating with (whether for or against) ideas, events, etc. in their culture or in other cultures and of merely expressing that which wants to be expressed as some art takes on a life of its own (sometimes I draw without knowing what I am going to draw or sometimes a drawing takes a different path AS I am drawing/painting/etc. it).