Artists: Their reputation and their work

[NovaKart]

I got the idea for this thread from some comments about Roman Polanski's new movie. It seems like every time his movies come up, people start talking about the charges against him from the 70s. Personally, I don't care. If the allegations are true it's terrible what he did, but that doesn't influence my opinion of his movies. I don't know if there is some point where an artists reputation would cause me to no long appreciate their work. Woody Allen, Michael Jackson, Roman Polanski, I don't really care what they've done in their personal life, it doesn't influence how I view their work. Am I alone in this, will you stop watching someone's films, reading their books or listening to their music if they do something scandalous in their personal lives? So it's clear, I'm not excusing what these people may or may not have done, I just don't see why it has to detract from what they have accomplished.

 

[emzie]

While an artist might have something eloquent to say, at some point I stop wanting to hear it precisely because of who they are as a person.

 

[nutranurse]

Well it all depends on how much their personal reputation bleeds into their artwork. If either of those three artists began to overtly put kiddie porn or whatever they are alleged to have done then, yeah, I quite certainly would have a problem. However, I am of the belief that art speaks through whatever person it wishes to and that it should be their art that is regarded, not the artist.

Sure you can understand a piece by interpreting it as an extension of the creator, but why on earth would you do that? How does it speak to you when you are looking at it through someone else's eyes? Apply your own mind to it!

 

[Kyriakos]

Inevitably each person re-creates the art in his own mental world, but then again the art has its primary meaning (if not significance) as that which was formed in the mind of its creator.

That said obviously good art assumes different meaning, for each person observing it, and even for each person in different times of his or her life while the art is being reflected upon.

 

[Mise]

While an artist might have something eloquent to say, at some point I stop wanting to hear it precisely because of who they are as a person.

Yeah, exactly.

And I find it difficult to praise someone who drugged and raped a teenaged girl and fled the country to avoid facing charges for it, even if I'm praising their work as an artist and not their work as a child rapist.