CONTEMPORARIES
FOLK HERO
The late Harry Smith makes history at the Whitney Museum of American Art. INTERVIEW BY CHRIS BYRNE
Andy Warhol, Screen Test: Harry Smith [ST314], 1964, 16mm film transferred to digital video, black and white, silent; 4 min. © The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved. Film still courtesy The Andy Warhol Museum.
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art of the Beat Generation in New York City, Harry Smith was a major figure in folk music in the 1960s, defined by his compilation of song recordings in the Antholog y of American Folk Music. In homage to the polymath, the Whitney Museum of American Art presents Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith, examining his life and work in a solo museum exhibition for the first time. Through a series of distinct sculptural spaces, designed in partnership with artist Carol Bove, paintings, drawings, experimental films, and personal objects from the late folk hero’s collection (paper airplanes, Seminole textiles), his influence lives on. Chis Byrne connects with Elisabeth Sussman, the Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney
From above: Harry Smith, still from Film No. 18: Mahagonny, 1970–80, 16mm film, restored to 35mm film, transferred to digital video, color, sound; 2 hr. 21 min. © and courtesy of Anthology Film Archives and Harry Smith Archives; Harry Smith Papers, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; Harry Smith, Abstract film studies (two slides projected alternately), 1951, Film stills, 21.87 x 33.50. Estate of Jordan Belson.
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PATRONMAGAZINE.COM
CHRIS BYRNE (CB): It’s exciting that the Whitney Museum of American Art is hosting the first solo exhibition of Harry Smith’s work — how did Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith come about? ELISABETH SUSSMAN (ES): I had a long-standing fascination with Harry Smith and started actual research and planning for the exhibition around ten years ago. I have had a long interest in crossover, non-media-specific exhibitions, so Harry’s hybrid reputation as an artist interested me. Also, I was interested in his West Coast beginnings, his involvement with spirituality and surrealism, and his underground status. It has been a treasure hunt and challenge to put this exhibition together. CB: To what do you attribute this (renewed) interest in his contributions to 20th-century American cultural histories? ES: I think all the areas that interested me originally are strong in today’s art world. Many people have heard of Smith, but he remains a mystery and a fascination. CB: I understand that the exhibition includes paintings, drawings, designs, films, and examples of his collections of objects... ES: Yes, that’s correct, and many of the works will be on view to the public for the first time.