Dinca — contemporary art blog

Tree of Life in the Four Worlds by Harry Smith

I’m very pleased to have found a large-sized image of Harry Smith’s Tree of Life in the Four Worlds. Filmmaker and artist, Harry Smith, created this brilliant and unique interpretation of the Tree of Life in 1954 when he was employed at Inkweed Arts, a greeting card company owned by Lionel Ziprin. 500 copies were printed in the first edition. The Tree of Life was shown at the Whitney Museum exhibit “Beat Culture and the New America 1950-1965.” The 1997 edition is printed from the original collotype plates executed by Jordan Belson.

It has now been reprinted in a limited fine art edition of 500 on Arches Cover 7″x 28″, available for purchase.


2 Comments

  • Philip Smith says:

    Two comments on other Harry Smith posts (now closed):

    1.) The portions of “The Tin Woodsman’s Dream” from the original OZ project synchronize with the ballet music from Gounod’s “Faust” in the Cluytens stereo studio recording for EMI done around 1958. I have done this myself and it dramatically increases the effect of the work (imagine if you had only seen “Mirror Animations” without the Monk).

    2.) Your “Mirror Animations” frames are flopped.

  • Hi Philip,

    Helpful notations. Wish I could say ditto on having synchronized Gounod’s “Faust” with The Tin Woodsman’s Dream.

    Thanks for the correction on the “Mirror Animations” frame ordering.

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