The juxtaposition between Turner's relationship with the slave trade and his almost ethereal depiction of light makes for a liminal tension for the viewer. Knowledge of the creator cannot help but codify the creation, even if its not operating at the consious level. Much like Nietzsche and Picasso's misogyny, Marx's antisemitism, Kant's racism (the list goes on ad nausuem).
It is simply unitiutive to (ala Russian Formalists) seperate the artist from the work -- I personally find it less interesting and curiosity is not so easily tamed. Hence, as celebrity culture reinforces, we will always be fascinated by the person pulling the strings. Yet our moral outrage and compassions is often temporally determined: elderly Socrates grooming and sleeping with young boys isn't going to stop academics studying him, but it remains difficult to watch Kevin Spacey in anything without it leaving a sour taste in the mouth. The question being, to what degree are ethics cultural determined, and what are the limits for retroactive tolerance?
Are we to forgo reading "The Lighthouse" because Woolf was a classist? Or do we give her a pass. What is the limit? We listen to Wagner. We enjoy the innumerable biblical paintings commisioned by a power-hungry, murderous, corrupt intsitution. Today, Aurelius is widley (and rightly) praised for his Meditations, but, feeling he had no choice, he was prepared to go ahead with a total genocide of a Germanic tribe (women and children too).
The holocaust looms large for many of us, but what of the mass murder wrought by the mongollians in the 12th and 13th century? Attenuated by time, transgressions and atrocities seem ghost-like to us, like an old Hollywood movie suitable for all audiences.
Social conditioning and "being judged according to their times" only goes so far. One only has to look at the many outliers throughout history who have understood that love, kindness, and compassion aren't just skills acquired via external means, but a fundamental part of our nature that must be tended to.
Anyway, ridiculously long comment but your piece got be going because it touches on a subject I'm extremely interested in!
