The Collections of Harry Smith: Catalogue Raisonné, Volume I and II

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—01. Paper Airplanes and String Figures.

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I am enraptured by the varied activities of Harry Smith – painting, collecting, filmmaking and musical anthropology – and with his recognition steadily rising over the last decade, it is becoming easier to link these disparate polymathic activities to him. The themes that bind all of these practices together are his interpretation of patterns in culture, and the creation of his own systems of visual and auditory information. When Smith’s work is viewed with these things in mind, it is clear that a specific thread runs through all of the artifacts he laid his hands on. A series of mounted string figures and 251 found paper planes – two of his most storied collections – form the basis of these new photographic volumes, shot by Jason Fulford and published by J&L Books and Anthology Film Archives.

—Available from Artbook

Paul Sharits Dream Displacement at Greene Naftali

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Greene Naftali
508 West 26th Street
8th Floor
New York, NY 10001
September 3 – October 3, 2015

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Paul Sharits' 1976 film Dream Displacement serves as the focus of this recently-opened solo show at Greene Naftali, which runs until October 3rd. Sharits was part of a group of experimental artists who emerged in the 1960s as the structural film school – a small but influential movement that has long had the gallery's support. This exhibition, co-presented by the Anthology Film Archives, features the looped multi-projector 16mm print of Dream Displacement alongside a selection of paintings and reference material.

—Greene Naftali

Stan Brakhage Essential Cinema at Anthology Film Archives

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–01. AFA facade.

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In 1970, the Anthology Film Archives began a project to define the breadth of art in cinema. Although it was never completed, their Film Selection Committee did put together 110 programs comprising 330 films and these form the Essential Cinema Repertory collection. These programs are now regularly shown at the NYC film museum and prove to be quite a rare treat, chronicling the work of acknowledged classic filmmakers next to legends of the avant-garde, such as Kenneth Anger, Jordan Belson, Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage. Starting this weekend, Brakhage is the subject of a retrospective which includes a number of his '50s and '60s films and the program will be a welcome exhibition of one of the 20th centuries most innovative artists in the medium of celluloid. 

—Anthology Film Archives