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We were deeply disappointed to hear about the felony domestic violence charges against Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland earlier this month, as well as the new allegations of his inappropriate conduct and messages to women and underage girls. In this video, we will not be discussing the specifics of the accusations against Roiland, so if that’s something you don’t want to hear, you’re in the clear.
Roiland was immediately dropped by Hulu and Adult Swim, but Rick and Morty will continue without him. This raises the age-old question of whether we can separate the art from the artist. Can we still enjoy the art of bad people and still be moral? In this Wisecrack Edition, we will explore this question and its implications.
At least as far back as Plato, philosophers and artists have been debating this question. Plato believed that art was a form of imitation that could exhibit a beauty that reflects moral goodness. However, he was also concerned that art could persuade people through emotions and distract them from truth and morality.
In the early to mid-20th century, Western Fine Art and art criticism was overtaken by formalism. This meant that art was appreciated solely for its formal aspects, rather than its context. This was the era of Art For Art’s Sake.
In recent decades, philosophers and experts have returned to examining the ethical criticism of art. It is now generally accepted that art can be morally bad. For example, Picasso’s Guernica was explicitly commenting on the violence of war, and NWA’s “The Police” was about police brutality.
According to one ethical criticism of art, the way to reconcile ethical and aesthetic criticism is to look at what the work asks of us. Many works of art aim to elicit specific responses, so the way we evaluate it is by looking at the ethical implications of those responses.
So, can we separate the art from the artist? That is up to each of us to decide.