Harry Smith's birthday today. Learn more about the unclassifiable maestro and treat yourself to a viewing of his remarkable Early Abstractions -here
(and/or Heaven and Earth Magic - here)
"You shouldn't be looking at this as a continuity. Film frames are hieroglyphs, even when they look like actuality. You should think of the individual frame, always, as a glyph, and then you'll understand what cinema's about"
An example of an early Harry Smith painting (Algo Bueno, c.1951)
and two more recent paintings (Untitled, c.1977)
and (Enochian Tablet, circa 1979)
and here is Untitled, from the previous year
This past year has seen the publication of the first two volumes of The Collections of Harry Smith Catalogue Raisonne (we eagerly await more)
Volume 1 is the Paper Airplanes
Volume 2 is the String Figures
An interesting note (2016) in recent anthropology
A continuing, unsurpassable, abiding musical achievement
Allen remembers Harry here - and here - and here
Gerd Stern remembers Harry - here
Tarot cards (Harry and the occult) from the Harry Smith Archive at the Getty Research Institute
Lee Bridgers Musiek and Rani Singh immortalize some (just some) of Harry's remarkable (and not-so-remarkable) objects.
M. Henry Jones's re-creations - on Harry, the filmmaker
&, via M.Henry Jones - and to finish off with - priceless footage of the irascible Harry himself.