Composers and artists living in Paris in the 20s had a complicated relationship with black art. Based on the readings that we’ve encountered so far, it’s safe to say that the mostly white population did not love this art, but rather used this art for their gain and loved the success they saw. Bernard Gendron’s book detailing the phenomenon of Negrophilia in 1920 Paris depicts some troubling scenes of artists and composers alike engaging with Black art in a unanimously impersonal way. Picasso walks into an art exhibit and is transfixed by “magical” masks that “fight evil spirits” and Cocteau drops African musical aesthetics when they become “boring” echoing his relationship with Japanese art. Not only does the exploitation of jazz and the admiration for African cubism conflate the experiences of African and African Americans, it also serves to define an idea of blackness that exclusively comes from outside of those communities, defining it instead opposite the values of whites at the time.
This case is echoed in Parisian’s treatment and exoticization of Spanish music and cultures, as outlined in Jame Parakilas’ book How Spain Got A Soul. According to Parakilas, it was through the abrupt exoticization and marginalization of Spanish people by Parisians that an idea of Spanishness was defined, through France’s tokenization of Spanish sounds, culture and aesthetics. Again, definitions are being enacted without meaningful engagement by white creators. When seeing this pattern of behavior and ideology it’s clear that their definition of love derives from fantasies of colonial conquest. For these reasons, it’s safe to say that 20s Parisians did not love black art.
Today, the phenomenon of Negrophilia is very present in our current musical life. Hip Hop and Rap have gone from the primarily black communities that they were conceived in and have entered the mainstream, even topping the musical charts and breaking records for sales and streaming. Though it’s a great thing to see black art gain the recognition it so rightfully deserves, it’s popularity has allowed for it to be appropriated and commodified in a way that typically benefits white creators, producers and managers behind the scenes, even birthing a generation of white artists that produce Hip Hop music. As in 1920s Paris, this phenomenon has allowed for a dominantly white audience to fabricate an idea of blackness and engage in the culture/community it was created for/in in a very superficial way, how writers like Cocteau would joke and prod while exploiting jazz sounds and musical motifs. The instances our readings talk about, detailing the elation of black experiences, the exploitation of musical practices and the commodification of foreign art are all unfortunately still present, as they were 100 years ago.