# Harry Smith [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Everett_Smith) ( May 29, 1923 – November 27, 1991 ) ## Description Polymath American artist, filmmaker, and folklorist who made hand-painted, drawn, and collage animation exploring alchemical, Kabbalistic, and occult symbolism, and who compiled the *Anthology of American Folk Music* (1952), reshaping the postwar folk revival. ## Key Tags #direct-animation #drawn-on-film #visual-music #camera-less #occult ## Essential Works - *Early Abstractions* (Films No. 1–5, 7, 10, c. 1946–57) - hand-painted, cameraless abstract animation set to jazz and later Thelonious Monk - *Heaven and Earth Magic* (Film No. 12, 1962) - cutout collage animation constructed from a personal cosmology of alchemical and occult imagery - *Anthology of American Folk Music* (1952, Folkways Records) - three-volume compilation reissue that became foundational to the American folk revival ## Details Trained early in Native American ethnography and painting; moved between abstract, cameraless film work influenced by synesthesia and occult systems (Crowley, Kabbalah, alchemy) and large-scale collecting projects (folk 78s, string figures, Ukrainian Easter eggs, Seminole textiles). Long associated with the New York underground scene and the Chelsea Hotel; a formative influence on Jonas Mekas's Anthology Film Archives and profiled at length in P. Adams Sitney's critical writing. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Symbolism, Theology, and Occultism]] - built his abstract films around a personal system of alchemical, Kabbalistic, and magical correspondences - [[Visual Music]] - early abstract films synchronized hand-painted imagery to jazz recordings ### Creative and Technical Practices - [[Drawn on Film]] - hand-painted and scratched frame-by-frame animation directly on film stock ### Collaborators %% none yet %% ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - Anthology Film Archives - his films were part of the "Essential Cinema" collection that founded the institution, co-organized by [[Jonas Mekas]] and [[P. Adams Sitney]] ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Szwed, John F. *Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith*. First edition. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.