Quick Plato Epiphany

Okay, I haven't actually read Plato's Republic, not all of it. But I have heard that he posits a perfect society, and in that perfect society, there are no poets. And by poets, I've been told, he basically means artists of any kind. In other words, in Plato's perfect world, there are no artists. Therefore, in an ideal world, there is no art.

Keep in mind that I'm speaking from ignorance here, not actually having studied or even read Plato. This is the idea I came up with while thinking about why on earth Plato would come down so harshly on artists. After actually reading and researching, I'll probably have a different opinion, and I worry that the genesis of this particular epiphany will have been lost.

I've always been bothered a little by hearing this, though never quite enough to actually look up the reference. No art in a perfect society? That's odd. Weren't the ancient Greeks great lovers of artwork? Isn't our own society one that elevates artists and prizes artwork? Isn't art a good thing?

My point is simply this: that Plato's ideal or perfect society has no artists because it needs no artists. The function of art is to operate within and upon an imperfect world. We have art because the world is an imperfect place. Artists are always thinking of ways in which the world could be different. If society were perfect, there would be no need for art of any kind, because there would be no need to imagine the world as any different than it already is.

But I'm probably wrong.