Artistic Genius as Primitive Being

“…aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful consists, to a large extent, in the fact that, when we enter the state of pure contemplation, we are raised for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares; we are, so to speak, rid of ourselves.”

The lofty artist has always been seen as somehow above the rest of society. This quote from early 19^th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer shows that long before jazz, the true artist was seen as entering a state that was not at all physical, but existed only on a spiritual level. What Schopenhauer was getting at is that a human achieves art by leaving behind all the burdens of the material world and becoming something more than human. This same concept can be applied to the “hip” jazz musicians of the mid-twentieth century.

In Ingrid Monson’s article, “The Problem with White Hipness,” she talks a lot about how jazz artists were viewed as primitive beings that existed only for the music. The hip artists seemed unconcerned with worldly problems and were always seeking the more spiritual side of life. She points out that “negative social behaviors could be transformed into positive markers of artistic genius.” I think this perspective is very related to Schopenhauer’s philosophy of purity of being. Whether it be through the use of drugs or just being completely absorbed into the aural sensation of the music, jazz musicians seemed to step up to that next level of being in the 1950s. This is when jazz truly became known as an artform instead of a simple means of entertainment. Fans of jazz at the time really felt they saw the transformation from human to artist when they watched these performers.

I find it interesting that over a century before the primitive view of jazz musicians made them seem more artistic, people were philosophizing about separating body from mind and mind from society to make art truly beautiful. This shows that jazz became an established transformative and moving artform through this concept of hipness.