Whitney Museum Mounts Major Harry Smith Retrospective

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is staging 'Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith', a major retrospective of the polymath Harry Smith (1923–1991), who was an anthropologist, occultist, music historian, filmmaker, artist, and collector. The exhibition, co-curated by artist Carol Bove, runs through January 28. Smith is best known for his 1952 'Anthology of American Folk Music', which sparked the folk revival and counterculture. The show includes his hand-painted films, abstract paintings, string figures, and vast collections of artifacts like tarot cards and Ukrainian painted Easter eggs. Bove's research reveals Smith's engagement with contemporary art currents, such as seeing Jackson Pollock's work in 1945. The exhibition devotes a quarter of its space to a listening environment for the Anthology. Smith was canonized this year as a gnostic saint by the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.