The Occult Harry Smith

Résumé : Harry Smith (1923–1991) was a legendary twentieth-century artist, filmmaker, painter, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, and archivist. Especially well known for his Anthology of American Folk Music, innovative abstract films, and extraordinary collection of paper airplanes now housed at the Getty Research Institute, Smith also had a deep esoteric and mystical side, with experimentation in magic, Tarot, Qabalah, and other occult practices. Like the alchemists, Smith’s life mission was to create a unified work from disparate elements, a synthesis of correspondences between seemingly unrelated topics, from music, string figures, and Seminole patterns to the relationship between sound and film imagery. Presenting the most diverse collection of writings by and about Smith, this volume explores the far-ranging esoteric themes that run throughout Smith’s art and career. It includes ­never-before-seen photos, rare interviews, personal letters, and an unpublished text by Harry Smith, The 96 Apparitions of the 96 Alchemical Formulae (1 to 36), as well as personal reminiscences from Smith’s friends and former students. With growing scholarly interest and a substantial show in 2023–24 at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art, Smith’s groundbreaking mystical wisdom and “heaven and earth magic” are finally receiving the recognition they deserve, cementing Smith’s reputation as an artist of the extremes who rose above ordinary existence to make a profound contribution to art, music, film, and modern alchemy