Art and the artist are seperate

Radio NZ reports:

An Otago student has set up a petition to have disgraced Dunedin artist John Middleditch’s sculpture removed from public display at the University of Otago.

The large bronze sculpture created in 1969 sits outside within the Dunedin campus and is currently the subject of a panel enquiry about whether to remove it.

In February RNZ revealed Middleditch was convicted of indecently assaulting young girls and a teenage girl in December 1976.

The convictions came to light after a Dunedin woman complained to Health NZ in January, asking that a 1980s water sculpture of Middleditch’s in Dunedin Hospital be removed. …

Now, a Change.org petition to remove both sculptures has attracted 245 signatures.

The petition, created by Bee Brown on 12 March, calls on fellow Otago University and polytechnic students, families, friends and residents to support the removal of the sculpture entitled Eleven Bronze Rods supporting Albatross Wingspan, as well as the water sculpture.

I have sympathy for his victim/s. However I think we need to be careful about not seeing an artwork as an endorsement of an artist. You can enjoy  Der Ring des Nibelungen but also think Wagner was a pretty awful racist.

His offending should be a factor in whether to promote his artworks. But to say that one must remove a sculpture that has been in public for over 50 years would be an over-reaction.