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Is it important/possible to separate the art from the artist? (lemmy.today)

submitted 3 days ago by FritzApollo@lemmy.today to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I would say it's not possible. The art IS the artist. The art only is what it is because the artist is who they are. But a lot of people seem to be very comfortable with the idea of separating the art from the artist. What say Lemmy?

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[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 15 points 3 days ago

Struggle with it.

Most folks in this thread are taking about paintings.

What about actors, singers and comedians where the art is so much of their persona?

For the longest time I was completely oblivious to what Roman Polanski did and I revered Chinatown.

I still think it is an incredible movie, but when I learn that Polanski drugged and raped a little kid…. After he attempted to do it once and Angelica Houston stopped him.

I used to listen to Bill Cosby records as a kid and holy shit the Chicken Heart routine still makes me giggle when I remember parts of it.

Then all the heinous shit he did has come out and I just struggle with how to handle it.

Another aspect I struggle with should I victimize all the artists involved because of the actions of one of them.

Take Harvey Weinstein. He was horrible. He was basically torturing people. He was a sexual terrorist.

Unfortunately Miramax and later The Weinstein Company made some of the greatest movies. Should I boycott all of them?

I do not have a good answer.

And then let’s take it down to something a lot less EVIL.

I used to revere Paul Newman. I used to think his long time marriage to Joanne Woodward was a thing of beauty and I guess it was. Then I learned about how he basically abandoned his first wife and three kids after she has spend years funding his life as actor before his career took off.

I list a number of his movies as some of the greatest of all time and a number of his performances as some of the greatest of all time and I love them to this day.

How do I reconcile that with the above.