In "The Hunger Artist," what is the relation between the artist and those who watched him?

You have asked an excellent question about this
fascinating story. One central theme that can be clearly identified is the relationship
between the artist and their audience - note the title of the story and the way that the
central protagonist calls himself an "artist." Kafka seems to be using the hunger artist
to raise serious questions about the relationship between the artist and their
audience.

It is important to note that the hunger artist
dedicates himself totally to his career. He craves the attention and wonder that his art
gains and is delighted when the whole town is interested in his
art:

He was
quite happy at the prospect of spending a sleepless night with such watchers; he was
ready to exchange jokes with them, to tell them stories out of his nomadic life,
anything at all to keep them awake and demonstrate to them again that he had no eatables
in his cage and that he was fasting as not one of them could
fast.

Yet, although the
interest, appreciation and curiosity of the crowd brings him joy, he remains deeply
unsatisfied with his performance. He feels limited by the 40 day fasting limit imposed
on him and also feels that the audience really do not appreciate his art in the way it
should be:

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Why stop fasting at this particular moment,
after forty days of it? He had held out for a long time, an illimitably long time; why
stop now, when he was in his best fasting form, or rather, not yet quite in his best
fasting form? Why should he be cheated of the fame he would get for fasting
longer...?

We can imagine
that his struggles with his relationship with the audience is typical of many artists,
who want their art to be appreciated for what they feel it is, rather than the
packaged-for-presentation nature of art that is savoured by the public. Eventually, his
art goes out of vogue and he is consigned to a circus and, ironically, given free reign
to practice his art for as long as he wants, but to a disinterested
audience.

"The Hunger Artist" therefore raises serious
questions about the relationship between artists and their audience, and the struggle
between the purity of art and the way that art is often misinterpreted or misrepresented
to an uncaring and fickle audience.