The application of brush strokes, the mixing of paint colors, the visualization of a scene, has little to do with the way they live their life.

Remove the name "Gauguin" from the painting, and there are many admirable qualities, which we are right to admire, learn from, and study.

The problem is with the cult of celebrity. Attributing the art to the individual outside of the context of the art.

I'd love to see a museum remove all the names from the paintings; let the work stand on its own. See what happens to the viewers' experience when they have to weigh the piece solely on the evidence presented on the canvas (or in the physical sculpture), divorced from the name, the celebrity of the creator...

I'm sure this has been done many times in the past, and there are studies showing the results of these experiments... but I feel like the art stands alone from the individual.

(Then, someone can study the personalities of artists separate from their work, and provide some deeper understanding of the problematic social proclivities that seem common in many artists, and why those with weird tendencies may also produce other interesting work. But burdening the art with the creator's issues does not seem productive to me...)