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Untitled is an embossed design on ivory-colored paper augmented with a Chine collé of thin Mulberry paper. The edges of the sheet are deckled all the way around. The image can be read either vertically or horizontally, and Smith made his intentions to this effect by signing the print twice—in the lower left in each case, accompanied by the numbers 4/12/82, presumably shorthand for April 12, 1982. Near the signatures and dates are two hieroglyphic-like marks in red pencil. The design is rigidly symmetrical and consists of interlocking curving lines, circles, rings, and dots. The overall impression is one of delicacy and grace.
The design of Untitled relates to Smith’s passion for and knowledge of string figures such as cat’s cradle. String figures have been made for centuries across the globe, sometimes as a simple pastime, but also as a way to tell stories or even prophesize the gender of a child. Smith was an authority on string figures, having mastered hundreds of varieties. Untitled, as well as many of Smith’s paintings where circles hover and revolve around one another as if in a hallucinogenic state, clearly relate to his love for string figures.
Fascinated by music, and the compiler of an important resource, Anthology of American Folk Music, Smith was also an avid fan of jazz. In a letter to Hilla Rebay, director of Solomon R. Guggenheim’s Museum of Non-Objective Painting, he explains how his films examine rhythmic forces: “To me, the soul is expressed in the relations that exist between the rhythm of the physical world and the rhythm of the spiritual world. In worldly life the limits imposed by the material state keep us from comprehending the ultimate physical unit or the ultimate spiritual unit, however our intuitive preception [sic] of the ever changing relation between the two clarifies them both.” [2] Regardless of its orientation, Untitled pulsates with visual rhythms, created by the “strings” and the repetition of circles, rings, and dots.
Notes:
[1] See http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/
[2] Smith to Hilla Rebay, June 17, 1950, Hilla von Rebay Foundation Archive, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, quoted in Andrew Perchuk and Rani Singh, ed., Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute, 2010), 262.
ProvenanceFrom 1984
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by the American Art Foundation through The Pace Gallery, New York on March 20, 1984. [1]
Notes:
[1] Letter, March 20, 1984, object file.
Exhibition History
DepartmentAmerican Art
Untitled
Artist
Harry Smith
(1923 - 1991)
Date1982
Mediumembossing with Chine collé on Kozo (mulberry) and Arches cover
DimensionsFrame: 27 1/4 x 32 1/4 in. (69.2 x 81.9 cm)
Paper: 22 x 30 in. (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Image: 17 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. (43.8 x 56.5 cm)
Signed(stylized, see image)
Credit LineGift of the American Art Foundation
CopyrightCopyright Unknown
Object number1984.2.1.h
DescriptionThe Anthology Film Archives in New York City was founded in 1969 and is “dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of independent and avant-garde film.” [1] Ten years later it acquired Manhattan’s Second Avenue courthouse as its permanent home. In 1982, thirteen artists—many with ties to filmmaking—collaborated on a portfolio of prints to commemorate the Archives’s new home. The participants were: Raimund Abraham, Carl Andre, Rudolf Baranik, Alice Neel, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Richard Serra, Harry Smith, May Stevens, Andy Warhol, and William Wegman. Of these, Smith was the most intimately involved with the Archive, which debuted his film Mahagonny and is the repository of his films and record collection. Untitled is an embossed design on ivory-colored paper augmented with a Chine collé of thin Mulberry paper. The edges of the sheet are deckled all the way around. The image can be read either vertically or horizontally, and Smith made his intentions to this effect by signing the print twice—in the lower left in each case, accompanied by the numbers 4/12/82, presumably shorthand for April 12, 1982. Near the signatures and dates are two hieroglyphic-like marks in red pencil. The design is rigidly symmetrical and consists of interlocking curving lines, circles, rings, and dots. The overall impression is one of delicacy and grace.
The design of Untitled relates to Smith’s passion for and knowledge of string figures such as cat’s cradle. String figures have been made for centuries across the globe, sometimes as a simple pastime, but also as a way to tell stories or even prophesize the gender of a child. Smith was an authority on string figures, having mastered hundreds of varieties. Untitled, as well as many of Smith’s paintings where circles hover and revolve around one another as if in a hallucinogenic state, clearly relate to his love for string figures.
Fascinated by music, and the compiler of an important resource, Anthology of American Folk Music, Smith was also an avid fan of jazz. In a letter to Hilla Rebay, director of Solomon R. Guggenheim’s Museum of Non-Objective Painting, he explains how his films examine rhythmic forces: “To me, the soul is expressed in the relations that exist between the rhythm of the physical world and the rhythm of the spiritual world. In worldly life the limits imposed by the material state keep us from comprehending the ultimate physical unit or the ultimate spiritual unit, however our intuitive preception [sic] of the ever changing relation between the two clarifies them both.” [2] Regardless of its orientation, Untitled pulsates with visual rhythms, created by the “strings” and the repetition of circles, rings, and dots.
Notes:
[1] See http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/
[2] Smith to Hilla Rebay, June 17, 1950, Hilla von Rebay Foundation Archive, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, quoted in Andrew Perchuk and Rani Singh, ed., Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Research Institute, 2010), 262.
ProvenanceFrom 1984
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by the American Art Foundation through The Pace Gallery, New York on March 20, 1984. [1]
Notes:
[1] Letter, March 20, 1984, object file.
Exhibition History
Status
Not on view