If you ever get a chance, read his Republic. One of my majors as an undergrad was philosophy, so I've read him over and over again, so much so that some things have just become common knowledge.
In Republic, he outlines what he feels are the necessary traits for maintaining a long-lasting, successful society. He was very extreme. He felt all children should be removed from their homes after birth and raised collectively by society so none got shown favoritism, but were instead given professions based on their knowledge, skill, and merit. Plato also felt the arts were a distraction that did not contribute to society or to personal attainment of the Good. His world would be very serious.
To understand his view of the arts, you would have to know his view of the world. He saw there were two distinct realms; there was the world of the Forms and the Real World of man. The world of the Forms is the place where things are the ideal, ultimate versions of themselves. These versions are The Way Things Really Are. In our Real World, things Are as They Appear. They are not true in themselves, but imperfect copies of the forms. Because art is made by man, which is an imperfect copy of the concept of Man, it is a bastardization of whatever it is attempting to portray. Things in our world are once-removed from the world of the forms, but art- created by us and our imaginations- is twice-removed.
Plato may have felt this way because he interacted with many "learned" men and decided they knew nothing. Ultimately though, he feels that art is not a form of "remembering" the world of the forms, but it is something people just make up.
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