Can you separate the Art from the Artist?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. I found this article really helpful to think through some of my feelings:

https://www.katykatikate.com/the-blog//2018/02/sherman-alexie-and-million-dollar.html

Art isn’t a monologue. It doesn’t only belong to the artist. Art is a conversation that needs you to participate. The art you choose belongs to you, too.

(snip)

We’re asking whether we should judge pieces of art by the personal failings of the artists. We’re talking about Michael Jackson again. We’re talking about Gauguin and his 13-year-old bride. Sorry, brides. There were two of them, plus the old one. Who was 14.

Once the artist is dead and gone and the painting is still on the wall, we can have that conversation with a painting without necessarily involving the artist. That’s the easiest thing to do.
I don’t think the paintings should be ripped off the walls of the Met. I don’t think the books should be burned. Erasing our history is tantamount to silencing the stories of the people who suffered in the creation of that history. The models can only tell their stories through these paintings anymore, and they deserve to be heard, even if we can only hear them through the – ew – strokes of Gauguin’s brush.

But that’s the difference between Gauguin and Chuck Close; Gaugin's legacy is fixed, and the man is fucking dead. So are the kids. We can discuss his predatory manipulation of children and call it what it is without having to actually dole out any consequences. That’s the easiest thing to do.

Because of our cheerful impotence, we can shrug and hold both these ideas in our heads quite comfortably:

Gauguin is a pedophile.

Gauguin is sublime.

But Chuck Close is still very much alive, buying coffee with the money you gave him, talking dirty to young girls in the studio you paid for, and he belongs to us. Sherman Alexie is here, now. He is of our time and place. We are the people with whom he converses. We are the holders of his consequences. And we’re still holding them.

YMMV, of course. And it's not just a dead/alive thing -- Michael Jackson is dead; his victims are alive. They are still of our time and place; their stories tell me I can live without MJ's music.