I agree with Jeff. Wagner was an anti-Semite, a debtor, a man of extremely odd sexuality, and a liar, however, his music is spiritually uplifting. Mozart was thriftless, silly and foul mouthed, yet who would reject his works. I love Tolstoy's works, but as a husband he was a jerk. I remember these facts, but it doesn't stop my enjoyment of playing or listening to Mozart's works, nor to rereading War and Peace, or Joyce's Ulysses, another artist who would have been hard to be a friend with.
Picasso was a misogynistic jerk, Einstein too. How to separate the thing from its creator? I don’t know if I can, or if I should, but the thing, the work, the genius, still stands and cannot be denied, even as we denounce its creator.
I agree with Jeff. Wagner was an anti-Semite, a debtor, a man of extremely odd sexuality, and a liar, however, his music is spiritually uplifting. Mozart was thriftless, silly and foul mouthed, yet who would reject his works. I love Tolstoy's works, but as a husband he was a jerk. I remember these facts, but it doesn't stop my enjoyment of playing or listening to Mozart's works, nor to rereading War and Peace, or Joyce's Ulysses, another artist who would have been hard to be a friend with.
Picasso was a misogynistic jerk, Einstein too. How to separate the thing from its creator? I don’t know if I can, or if I should, but the thing, the work, the genius, still stands and cannot be denied, even as we denounce its creator.
I sometimes think if we judge the art by the personal conduct of the artist we would read no one! Forgive but not forget?