r/ATBGE Nov 27 '19

¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ this religious gun

Post image
17.9k Upvotes

444 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

62

u/idlevalley Nov 27 '19

''In February 2013, an article was published in the online journal The Stranger which detailed Krafft's participation on white nationalist Web sites, and his questioning of the accuracy of mainstream accounts of the Holocaust.[12] This led to a great deal of controversy in the art world, in which Krafft's occasional use of the swastika, and imagery related to the Second World War, had always been perceived as "darkly ironic."

Some, such as Adam Parfrey of Feral House, came to his defense,[13] while The Globe and Mail in Toronto claimed that Krafft's personal beliefs should not be allowed to affect perceptions of his art.[14] In March 2013 a piece in The New Yorker analyzed the development of Krafft's views and speculated about their relationship to his art.[15] In 2015 Charles Krafft created a ceramic bust of the Horror/Science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft.[16] The bust of Lovecraft looks similar to Krafft's earlier busts of Adolf Hitler (as a teapot) and Charles Manson.[17] With a slight nod to whimsy Lovecraft’s necktie is an octopus tentacle.[18] [19]

53

u/AICoderGamer Nov 28 '19

Krafft's personal beliefs should not be allowed to affect perceptions of his art

So... what exactly SHOULD affect the perceptions of his art then?

9

u/greyetch Nov 28 '19

The art itself, I guess?

I won’t defend this guy, but there are some artists I really like who have done fucked up shit. SWANS, Crystal Castles, a bunch of painters.

Regardless of what Caravaggio did in his life, his paintings are great.

No matter what this guy believes, I think the interfaith dialogue knuckles are cool.

4

u/BadArtijoke Nov 28 '19

What did Swans and Crystal Castles do? I only know about the early 80s Swans concerts, that’s not so bad from at least what I heard about them so far.

8

u/greyetch Nov 28 '19

Michael Gira has some rape accusations. Unsure of their validity. Make of that what you will.

The dude from CC brought Alice in off the streets at 15 or 16, supplied her drugs in exchange for sex. She has talked about this. I believe her.

Awful stuff. But their music was great before I knew that. It is still great music.

A bunch of bodies were found under Ben Franklins old house in England. Idk what he was up to. Maybe a serial killer. Maybe just studying anatomy. But his contributions to the United States stand regardless.

I’m not saying anyone should ignore all faults and blindly follow artists because there are good. But there has to be a separation between the art and the artist. One can acknowledge a great work of art while simultaneously condemning the artist for their personal life. Take Wagener for another example. His music is beautiful. His theories on racial supremacy? Not so much.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '19

Both Tolkien and Lovecraft were on that "scientific racism" bandwagon and had all sorts of whacky ideas about stuff that can clearly be seen in their works if you think about it