Harry Everett Smith (1923 – 1991) wore several hats: he was an American polymath, painter, filmmaker, folklorist music and art collector, and even a Bishop of Neo-Gnosticism, a modern faith movement that borrows symbols, concepts and deities from various religions. The American artist was a crucial fixture in the New York avant-garde art scene from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the breadth of his oeuvre, along with his art collection are currently highlighted in the exhibition Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, on from October 4 – January 28, 2024. Coinciding with Smith’s birth centenary, the prominent art museum’s show is co-curated by Rani Singh, the Director of the Harry Smith Archives, who joins STIR to discuss the monumental Harry Smith show, and shed light on the artist’s catalytic time in New York from the 1950s onwards.

It is difficult to explore Smith’s work without touching upon his connection to the Neo-Gnostic movement, Gnosticism is widely believed to have emerged out of early Christian and Jewish sects who sought to distance themselves from organised religious institutions and coalesced various ideas and symbols to construct a system of worship that emphasised personal spiritual experience. Originally considered heretical, Gnostic source materials would be discovered in Egypt in the 18th and 19th centuries, leading to Charles William King writing The Gnostics and their Remains (1864), which argued against such a perception and highlighted what King saw as a link between Gnosticism and Buddhism. The topic would garner great interest from intellectuals in the early to mid - 20th century, leading to the Neo-Gnostic movement. Chief among its proponents were world-famous psychoanalysts Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, the former among whom saw Gnostics not as members of a formal theological system but rather as genuine visionaries.

Smith’s involvement with Neo-Gnosticism came gradually, through his wider interest in theology and occult magic. As a child, he would participate in the shamanic traditions of the Lummi Nation at the behest of his mother, who was a teacher on their reservation in the Pacific Northwest of Washington. Later on, the artist designed a set of Tarot cards used by members of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), which was founded by the famed occult “magus” Aleister Crowley and includes the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC) church organisation. Smith himself grew to be closely associated with the OTO, and became a bishop of the EGC. After his passing in 1991, he was canonised as a Gnostic Saint in the EGC, which places him alongside William Blake.

Symbols associated with Neo-Gnosticism such as ankhs and triangles appear repeatedly within Smith’s work, especially those created during his time in New York, where he studied under OTO member Albert Handel.

Untitled [Demoniac self-portrait] (1952), is a particularly interesting, if a jarring example of the artist’s fascination with Neo-Gnostic symbology, and might understandably alarm some, given that the trident-brandishing demon is meant to be read as an exercise in self-reflection. However, Singh lays such worries to rest, saying “I don't see this as a 'demonic' work. I interpret this as Smith's acknowledgement of the duality of life, both the dark and the light.” She explains that Smith engaged with religious and spiritual systems in a variety of ways. Gnostic systems, esoterica and the occult were essential to his search for uncovering the nature of man and universal truths. 

Smith’s works produced in New York also display the scars from his battles at the time. The artist struggled increasingly with health and financial issues as he aged and became something of a vagabond towards the end of his life. From 1968 onward, he was a tenant at New York’s famous Chelsea Hotel, which has been home to many prominent names in American art. This would not last, and in 1971, he would find himself homeless and in search of shelter, moving between various other hotels and even spending some time living under the roof of his friend, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Singh references Film #18: Mahagonny as she discusses the works most reflective of this tumultuous period in the artist’s life. She tells STIR “(It was) made at a difficult time for both Smith and New York City, with the city going bankrupt and Smith having to leave the Chelsea Hotel under strained circumstances. The film is an intricately designed project based on numerological and symbolic systems. It is meant to be understandable to all peoples of the world, but it is also representative of Smith's world at the time.”

Singh is joined in co-curating Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith by Elisabeth Sussman, Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dan Byers, the John R. and Barbara Robinson Director of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, artist Carol Bove, Kelly Long, Senior Curatorial Assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art and McClain Groff, Curatorial Project Assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Whitney’s comprehensive presentation of Harry Smith explores an artist who was far more complex than may be immediately apparent from a cursory glance at his work. Works such as Untitled [Demoniac Self Portrait] and Mahagonny simultaneously highlight his acknowledgement of human negativity and his desire to confront its symptoms within the world around him. The art exhibition’s most urgent reading is the heartfelt appreciation for human knowledge that it reveals on his part, unfettered by even the faintest trace of parochialism.