Can you separate art from the artist ?

That is to say, can you appreciate art for its own sake, even if its artist is revealed to be despicable personally, for example, someone who was an excellent musician, actor ot producer but committed sexual assault, cheated on partners, was openly anti-Semitic or racist ?

If some ills are more acceptable to you than others, where do you draw the line ?

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SW-User

I got into a big argument about this with someone once. I believe the less you know about the artist, the better. Knowledge of the artist will effect the experience, especially if the artist has unpleasant traits. If the artist is especially awful, like ted nugent, I'd avoid his work, though.