I'm not sure if this will help, But if you're looking for artists who created compositions based on whats happening around them, Pablo Picasso is a great example. His paintings are very emotionally driven. His style was very odd and wasn't accepted right away so that reflects how his art was against the time period. He painted this picture called Guernica (I think thats what it is called) and it symbolizes when the Nazis bombed the city of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. There are several symbols to be found in the painting. I hope this helped, I bet you can write three paragraphs with this, if this is what you were looking for.