海角大神

What is cool? Or perhaps, more importantly, who is cool? 聽

Whatever or whoever it is, cool is sought, that鈥檚 for sure. The pursuit of聽cool underlies the worlds of entertainment, fashion, and advertising 鈥� i.e. most of modern聽popular culture to a聽remarkable extent 鈥� and is arguably one of the key drivers of聽American society. 聽聽

Now an attempt to define the elusive meaning of cool is the focus of a mainstream exhibition. The National Portrait Gallery in聽Washington, D.C. currently has on show an exhibit titled 鈥淎merican Cool,鈥� which is comprised of 100 photographic portraits of individuals deemed by the curators to embody the concept of cool in a uniquely American way. Joel Dinerstein, an author and professor of American Studies at Tulane University, and Frank H. Goodyear III, co-director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and former curator of photography at the Portrait Gallery, organized the exhibit and wrote the accompanying book. 聽

What does it take to get into this pantheon of cool? That's a burning question and the exhibition provides a clue as to what cool is and how to be it. 聽

As might be expected, a lot of actors and聽musicians are included. What makes them cool? One critic called Humphrey Bogart "the most iconic American male actor in history," according to the caption of the photo of Bogart, and聽Lauren聽Bacall was called "hot as pepper, cool as rain, dry as smoke" by one critic, according to her photo's caption. What makes the actors somehow exude cool聽even for generations which聽succeeded them?

Photos of聽Elvis聽Presley and Bob Dylan are on show. Was it their groundbreaking, original approach to聽modern music聽that landed them in the exhibit? 聽聽

A few writers are pictured,聽Jack Kerouac聽and Ernest Hemingway among them. Were they chosen because they were rebels and renegades and thus considered cool?聽

More than a quarter of the exhibit portraits in the show are of African-Americans, beginning聽with聽Frederick Douglass and on to Duke Ellington, Michael Jordan, and Billie Holiday, among聽many others. What place does cool have as a cultural tradition in the black community?

Though cool was initially considered to be an exclusively masculine quality, the concept expanded over time and almost聽a quarter of those pictured聽are women, including Greta Garbo, Georgia O鈥橩eefe, Bessie Smith,聽Mae West, Angela Davis, and聽Madonna, to name a few.

So what is it? In the exhibit's book, Dinerstein聽and Goodyear developed the following rubric for being cool: 1)聽 鈥渙riginality of artistic vision鈥� and 鈥渟ignature style"; 2) a quality of "rebellion or transgression鈥�; 聽3) 鈥渋conicity鈥� (in other words, being famous);聽and 4) producing a "cultural legacy." Therefore, the answer to the above questions about what it takes to be cool is yes, those qualities are some of what it takes to be considered cool, at least in the terms of this exhibit.聽

The聽origin聽of the word and concept of cool can be traced back to聽African culture and one scholar claims that the concept of cool can be found in 35 Central and West African languages. The idea of American cool really began among jazz musicians in the 1940s, a time when African-Americans were not treated聽as equal. Cool became a pose, an attitude,聽a聽mask which initially helped black artists deal with this atmosphere of racial oppression. It was seen as a quality聽related to the idea of being 鈥渉ip鈥� and having聽鈥渃harisma without trying鈥澛燽ut including more than either. It was聽about maintaining emotional equilibrium under pressure, including聽racial聽oppression, and聽being聽stylish while doing it.聽聽

In this exhibit, the jazz saxophonist Lester Young is credited with being the 鈥渇ather of cool,鈥� for bringing the African concept into the American vernacular. Other jazz musicians, including Thelonious Monk, Charlie聽Parker, and Miles Davis, contributed to the idea. 聽

Gradually, cool became embraced by most Americans, regardless of color. 鈥淎mericans care about cool,鈥� says Dinerstein. Therefore some Americans have tried to market it. According to this exhibit, cool is a commodity, or has become one. "Over the past century, cool has arguably been America's chief cultural export, " says Goodyear in his essay on the photography of cool in the exhibit's book. 聽聽聽

It鈥檚 not enough just to be cool. Others have to know and acknowledge you are. Being photographed as cool is a large part of being so. As Dinerstein points out, 鈥淚f we could not find a photograph that captured a person鈥檚 cool, he or she was dropped.鈥�

An interesting, but unofficial, subplot of this exhibit is the extent to which the use of tobacco is pictured as a prop for cool. Approximately 10 percent of the photos depict the subject smoking. In addition, the captions which accompany the portraits indicate that at least one in five of those pictured had issues with substance abuse. Looking deeper into the relationship between those propensities and American cool might be instructive. 聽

And finally, there is the question of you and me. Are we cool? If not, can we become so? 鈥淢ost of us simply aren鈥檛 cool,鈥� Dinerstein proclaims. And maybe that鈥檚 okay. Because, looked at closely, this exhibit gives hints that being cool is probably a little more complicated than most cool people would like us to think.聽

鈥淎merican Cool鈥� is at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. until September 7, 2014.聽

Katherine Stephen is a Monitor contributor.