Art cannot be separated from the artist, but they don't necessarily need to be

I have said in the past, very publicly, on the internet, that art and artist should be separated, but I don’t believe that anymore. The artist does not separate themselves from their art when they make it, so it’s not possible to separate them from it after it’s made.

That said, I don’t think that when an artist does something deplorable that it means their art has somehow changed. It’s still good, if we thought it was good before, and the artist is still in it. However, it’s the better part of them that’s in it, not the ugly part.

I have no issue with someone separating themselves from the work of an artist if the actions of the artist makes their work uncomfortable to engage with. However, it does not change the quality of the work. It only changes your reaction to it.

It’s one thing you learn as you delve more into the history of any creative medium. There are a lot of really awful people who have made a lot of really beautiful things. We reconcile that by recognizing that people have both ugliness and beauty inside them, and they come out in different ways.