In what way is Winston the "last artist" in 1984?

Winston could be called the "last artist" in 1984for several reasons. First, he is old enough to have memories from the time before the Party came into power. He recalls, for example, fragments of "Oranges and Lemons," a traditional English nursery rhyme in which the church bells of London talk to each other, and he tries hard to preserve this memory. He is drawn as well to beautiful objects produced in the old days...

Winston could be called the "last artist" in 1984 for several reasons. First, he is old enough to have memories from the time before the Party came into power. He recalls, for example, fragments of "Oranges and Lemons," a traditional English nursery rhyme in which the church bells of London talk to each other, and he tries hard to preserve this memory. He is drawn as well to beautiful objects produced in the old days before the Party took control: he buys a lovely paperweight with a piece of coral inside, and he also buys a journal, appreciating its beauty:

It was a peculiarly beautiful book. Its smooth creamy paper, a little yellowed by age, was of a kind that had not been manufactured for at least forty years past.

But all these objects and memories are, more importantly, clues to a larger goal: Winston seeks the freedom to craft or create his own life, to live it the way he wants to, rather than how the Party tells him to. His crime is his desire to be his own person, to own his own soul, to love, write and think what he wants. Such an assertion of creative or artistic freedom represents a subversion the Party is determined to crush.