Should We Separate the Art From the Artist?

Open to Debate

News, Education, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2022

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It turns out your favorite artist is a monster. Say they committed murder, advocated genocide, or engaged in some other act so outside the scope of a dignified, respectable society that it cannot be redeemed. What now? Must you throw the art out with the artists? It's a question at the heart of both pop culture and high art critique. For some, a work of art is an entity in itself. It should be appreciated and revered without regard to the life of its creator. If we disregard all great art for the sins of the artists, we risk losing many of the world's greatest cultural touchstones and masterpieces. But for others, the act of supporting a work of art translates directly affirming its creator's evil acts. In this timeless debate, we ask: Should we separate the art from the artist? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Their skiff'd have ever received has to be a bike when I was younger, a pedal bike.
0:07.0	It was a sort of slick little road bike and I remember it was all like, it was so, it was all wrapped up,
0:13.0	it was so obvious what it was obviously because nothing shaped like a bike and I had a little ribbon on it and I was so
0:17.0	a guess. For that was a life changer and I'm still sort of big on cycling around my area now so, for that one change really low.
0:24.0	Enjoy in every sip with red cups now back at Starbucks.
0:31.0	Hey everybody and welcome to Intelligent Squirt. I'm John Donben and I have a question for you to ponder.
0:38.0	Have you had this experience? There is a comedian that you just idolize or a singer or an actor or a painter or a writer or a composer.
0:48.0	Somebody whose work you consider to be just totally amazing, full of insight and beauty and maybe even genius.
0:55.0	And then you find out this person that you idolize is a total jerk or worse.
1:01.0	You know, believes in some really bad ideas or has said some really hurtful things or done some really harmful things.
1:07.0	Examples, Richard Wagner, Bill Cosby, Arkelli, Picasso.
1:12.0	But there are so many more to list because every artist has a private life of course and then stuff comes out.
1:19.0	And when it does, how does that affect your connection to their work as a fan?
1:25.0	Do you downgrade your estimation of it because your opinion of the artist has fallen?
1:29.0	Or do we as a culture still find a way to admire and honor the work apart from the person who made it?
1:35.0	You know, if you Google the phrase, separate the art from the artist, you will see that exact language coming up again and again as a headline on our bed pieces and in the titles of scholarly papers.
1:46.0	Because it is a relevant question, especially in recent years as we have a culture have engaged in reckoning and re-evaluations and cancellations.
1:55.0	So to help shed some light on the matter, we decided to take that phrase and debate it as a question. So let's have it.
2:02.0	Agreed to disagree, should we separate the art from the artist?
2:07.0	We have two guests who will take opposite sides, one answering yes and the other answering no.
2:11.0	Arunah D'Souza is a writer specializing in art and politics with a particular focus on feminism.
2:17.0	She has studied the especially intriguing topic of how museums impact the way all of us view and understand the world.
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