As an art history major I was taught to consider the artwork separately from the artist.
But it just seems like everyday now we’re finding out about the feet of clay of yet another one of our idols, especially in the realm of pop culture, and I see a lot of people wondering if they’re still allowed to enjoy that person’s work.
This article was going around on facebook the other day; I think the three faces in the snippets are Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Cosby.
Illustration from Roxane Gay article in Marie Claire
I, like Gay, loved Bill Cosby growing up. My mom did too.
There are a few Woody Allen quotes that always made a lot of sense to me, like “75% of success is just showing up”, and I always liked that he named his kid after Satchel Paige. And the oral contraception joke, though dated, is still funny.
I mean, I do think that we have to see shades of grey and consider that maybe what one abuser did is somehow less bad than what others did – like Kevin Spacey was extra discredited because he assaulted young men, rather than women. Or trying to figure out some kind of scale where things may be slightly more OK between equals, like what Al Franken’s back stage butt slapping and stolen kisses seem to have been. Or give them some kind of “it was the times” excuse – like around the time Cosby was drugging women, I was regularly offered quaaludes and alcohol by men. Maybe Cosby was just trying to be a 70s swinger …
And while I do believe power is an important consideration, I really don’t want to give them excuses, because it negates the pain of the victim. Although, I must admit to wondering from time to time if we are all becoming a bunch of whiny bitches. And I keep trying to look hard at myself, and make sure I’m not being more lenient of the behavior of people (liberal men!) I agree with, or like their work, or just kinda of like.
And where I’ve come down to is to think we just have to say we are all flawed, but still have the ability to create. It’s how art saves us. And probably where religion came from, too.
I really liked Kevin Spacey’s probably last role before being discredited, Doc in Baby Driver. And I admired his personification of courtly, polite-talking with a Southern accent, evil, in the Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and season one of House of Cards.
And I still think Let it Ride is a great song, and I like that Ryan Adams kinda gave it to Phil Lesh & Friends.
I can’t get over thinking, despite everything, that Johnny Depp is an OK guy, and yes, I like his off-kilter characters, though maybe Edward and Benny & Barnabas more than Capt. Jack Sparrow. Plus he looks like my kid.
Johnny & John, posted in 2012
Here’s a (pre me too) article called Jerks and Great Art, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, where he’s trying to grapple with the same question. Coates puts forth the art-will-outlive-the-artist argument, as does the blog, How to talk about art history. The author, Ellen Oredsson answered a reader question, “How can I love artists like Gauguin when I know so much of his work was exploitative and racist?” posted on my 60th birthday, giving the viewer a couple options:
- You can decide that you just don’t want to support an artist and artistic legacy that goes so much against your own values.
- You can decide that you still love and appreciate Gauguin’s art, based on what you see and value in it, and also be aware of the history of the actual paintings.
And goes on to say that she’s a firm believer that you can love something and be able to criticize it, too. “Everyone has different ideas on what makes an artwork beautiful, and it’s really up to us to decide.” Of course, Oredsson’s an art history major like me.
Murphy said it the most succinctly:
