IF the artist is labeled by their public as having a “mad” temperament . . .
and IF the artist acknowledges their “mad” temperament as a badge of honor . . .
THEN, Barzun suggested, the artist and their public are at liberty to disengage from shared commitments.

The artist can boast that their madness gives them a clearer vision than the rest of us. The artist’s ruling passion becomes self-consciousness, in which the artist usually poses themself as being lonely and skeptical. Barzun cautioned against the pose, for being outwardly and inwardly injurious—it works against the spirit of the collective, and it nurtures resentment. As the artist assumes this role and embraces its accompanying prerogatives, especially in more extreme or pure expressions, artistic agency is used to show us up and to make us helpless against its provocations.

Jacques Barzun, “Art in the Vacuum of Belief”