How much do you need to like an artist in order to listen to him/her?

[Abuelo Igor]

My point is that, if you didn't know it was by Hitler, you would merely consider it run-of-the-mill amateur stuff and you would praise it maybe to encourage the guy who painted it, but wouldn't wax indignant for hours on end about how bad it is.

In this case, it's the identity of the painter, and his human "qualities" that make it bad in the eyes of people, instead of the questionable person made good by the excellence of the work he produced.

[Cosi bel do]

My point is that, if you didn't know it was by Hitler, you would merely consider it run-of-the-mill amateur stuff and you would praise it maybe to encourage the guy who painted it, but wouldn't wax indignant for hours on end about how bad it is.

In this case, it's the identity of the painter, and his human "qualities" that make it bad in the eyes of people, instead of the questionable person made good by the excellence of the work he produced.

In your opinion. If I didn't know it was by Hitler, I would just wonder why someone bothered putting this ugly old postcard on the internet.

[EigenUser]

Okay. Let's go to the other side of this argument. I'm not trying to prove or disprove anything. I am just interested in seeing what people think.
https://www.youtube.com/v/XR4mlR3laik

[ibanezmonster]

It is actually quite bad.

I don't think it's terrible, just ugly and pointless. As in, you still have to have some skill to paint something like that. But "yuck" was my first impression looking at it, even before knowing who the "artist" was.

This is better: 

[Mandryka]

I like Voyage au bout de la nuit. And The Rainbow.. And I quite like Gauguin's pictures. I quite like Verlaine too. Ezra Pound wrote some tremendous verse.

Neither Céline nor Lawrence nor Gauguin nor Verlaine nor Pound led morally commendable lives.

Can the work of art itself be immoral, the act of immorality in the life of the artist being the creation of the work? Sometimes I think this about Le Roi des Aulnes (Tournier), which I found very disturbing indeed.