Jack Smith at Mitchell Algus - New York - art exhibition

Drawn from the personal collection of the late actress Maria Antoinette and her husband, painter Edwin Ruda, this special assembly of ephemera brought welcome attention to a chapter in the life of the legendary filmmaker, photographer and performance artist Jack Smith (1939-1985) and individual of his stars. A Mescalero Apache Indian, Antoinette performed in three of Smith's productions in 1969 and 1970

Among the well-tended facts on display, a smiling nun prays to a crucified lobster in Smith's placard design for the theater piece Miracle of Farblonjet, first performed as Stepladder to Farblonjet in 1968 Smith created the work at a time of rich barm in the contentious (but thriving) fresh York theatrical milieu of the ridiculous that included of that kind impresarios as Ronald Tavel, John Vaccaro, Charles Ludlam and Richard Foreman. In single photograph, Antoinette vamps with actress Ruby Lynn Reyner in Vaccaro's Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit (1969) The sum of two units shimmer with glitter in torn stockings and outrageous maquillage. It may be upon this occasion that Smith penn a alphabetic character included here, reproaching Antoinette for a betrayal and assuring her she would not at any time play Ophelia in his Hamlet.

Undated drawings for style of dresss are frequently hilarious. One identified as The Belch depicts a many-breasted, whim-sical reptilian figure, and another, The Wig, a femme fatale with smoldering organ of visions The drawings recall, in handsome exaggeration, aspects of Edward Gorey and Aubrey Beardsley.

Contact sheets document Smith, Antoinette and company upon the subway to Coney Island, with Smith embracing a 1969 tabloid bearing the of recent origins of the murder of Sharon Tate. A portrait through photographer Fred Eberstadt shows Smith in elegant profile, a finger reach outed to his throat. Another taken through the artist Gwenn Thomas in the eau-de-cologne zoo provided the cover discharge for a 1974 issue of the art magazine Avalanche, in which Smith appears to be diademed by an extravagant array of plumage.

In the pages of a disassembled livre d'artiste decorated with a printed pattern of cockroaches, Smith maintains a thinly veiled attack upon Susan Sontag for what he saw as her condescending defense (in the pages of The Nation in 1964) of his controversial 1963 film, Flaming Creatures. He remind ofs that his strategy all along--aside from the ongoing work necessary to "keep our date in Baghdad"--had been to ensnare the media into writing about him. He scrawls in adventurous metaphor across one page, "Why other were we building a fortune-telling nomad wagon in a rented lot?"

The answer to this question has become increasingly clear, as exhibitions and publications featuring Smith and his work and demonstrating his influence multiply. In similar ways, word of his provocative gifts reaches the attention of a younger generation that appear to bes particularly engaged by Smith's attitudes toward the making, presentation and commodification of art.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group