Henry Flynt

Henry Flynt (born 1940 in Greensboro, North Carolina) is a philosopher, avant-garde musician, anti-art activist and exhibited artist often associated with Conceptual Art, Fluxus and Nihilism.

Background

Henry Flynt’s work devolves from what he calls cognitive nihilism; a concept he developed and first announced in the 1960 and 1961drafts of a paper called "Philosophy Proper." The 1961 draft was published in Milan with other early work in his book "Blueprint for a Higher Civilization" in 1975. Flynt refined these dispensations in the essay "Is there language?" that was published as "Primary Study" in 1964.

In 1961 Flynt coined the term concept art [London Times literary Supplement, August 6th, 1964, p. 688 "Henry Flynt concept art" .] in the Neo-Dada, proto-Fluxus book "An Anthology of Chance Operations" (published by Jackson Mac Low and LaMonte Young) that was released in 1963. [Flynt, Henry. [http://www.henryflynt.org/aesthetics/conart.html] "Essay: Concept Art. As published in "An Anthology of Chance Operations" (1963)] "An Anthology of Chance Operations" contained seminal works by Fluxus artists such as Al Hansen, George Brecht and Dick Higgins. Flynt's "concept art", he maintained, devolved from cognitive nihilism, from insights about the vulnerabilities of logic and mathematics. Drawing on an exclusively syntactical paradigm of logic and mathematics, "concept art" [ [http://www.henryflynt.org/meta_tech/crystal.html Henry Flynt, "The Crystallization of Concept Art in 1961"] ] was meant jointly to supersede mathematics and the formalistic music then current in serious art music circles. Therefore, Flynt maintained, to merit the label "concept art", a work had to be an object-critique of logic or mathematics or objective structure." [Henry Flynt, "Concept-Art (1962)", Translated and introduced by Nicolas Feuillie, Les presses du réel, Avant-gardes, Dijon.] It has nothing to do with concept art as the term is used to describe a form of illustration in the realm of the digital arts.

In 1962 Flynt began to campaign for an anti-art position. [Michel Oren (1993) Anti-Art as the End of Cultural History, Performing Arts Journal, volume 15, issue 2.] Thus he demonstrated against cultural institutions in New York City (such as MOMA and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts) with Tony Conrad and Jack Smith (film director) in 1963 and against the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen twice in 1964. [Interview with Henry Flynt in The Village Voice, Septmber 10th, 1964, by Susan Goodman, "Anti-Art Pickets Pick on Stockhausen" .] Flynt wanted avant-garde art to become superseded by the terms of "veramusement" and "brend" - neologisms meaning approximately pure recreation. Flynt read publicly from his text "From Culture to Veramusment" at Walter De Maria's loft on February 28th, 1963 - an act which can be considered performance art.

From about 1980, Flynt has given a great deal of time to two endeavors which did not achieve the notoriety of the early actions: his concepts of meta-technology [ [http://www.henryflynt.org/meta_tech/lessonsinmeta-t.html Henry Flynt, "Lessons in Meta-Technology"] ] and personhood theory. [ [http://www.henryflynt.org/person_world/pertheorysketch.html Henry Flynt, "Personhood Theory: A Sketch"] ] In 1987 he revived his "concept art" for tactical reasons; and spent seven years in the art world. Following that period, Flynt began to publish recorded but unreleased musical compositions. Over 10 audio CDs have appeared as of 2007.

Flynt has written broadly on a wide variety of subjects which are available on his website: [http://www.henryflynt.org/ Henry Flynt: Philosophy]

Flynt as composer & violinist

Henry Flynt is also known for his musical work, often with him performing on violin, that attempted to fuse avant-garde noise music (particularly the hypnotic aspects of minimalism} with free-jazz and hillbilly country music. Some of his more dissonant violin performances can be compared to the no wave noise music violin performance art of Boris Policeband.

The four volume "New American Ethnic Music" series documents some of his seminal recordings. Volume 1 contains "You Are My Everlovin'/ Celestial Power" , some of his most primal work. "Spindizzy" (Locust, 2002), the second volume, contains one of his masterpieces, "Jive Deceleration". "Hillbilly Tape Music" (Recorded, 2003), the third volume, collects material recorded between 1971 and 1978, including the "S&M Delerium" and "Graduation and Other New Country and Blues Music" (Ampersand, 2001) and contains his masterpiece "Celestial Power" (1981).

"C Tune" (Locust, 2002) documents a 1980 live improvisation with Catherine Christer Hennix on tamboura and Flynt on electric violin. "Raga Electric: Experimental Music 1963-1971" (Locust, 2002) is another anthology that includes "Raga Electric" (1966) and "Free Alto" (1964). "Back Porch Hillbilly Blues - Volume 1" (Locust, 2003), with "Acoustic Hillbilly Jive" and "Blue Sky Highway and Tyme", and "Back Porch Hillbilly Blues Volume 2" (Locust) add more rarities. Both are collected on "Back Porch Hillbilly Blues, Volumes 1 & 2" (Bo Weevil, 2004).

"I Don't Wanna" (Locust Music, 2004) documents a garage-punk band, the Insurrections, that Flynt led in 1966. "Purified by the Fire" (Locust, 2005), recorded in December 1981, repeats the format of "C Tune": Catherine Christer Hennix on tamboura and Flynt on electric violin. The 41-minute raga is dominated by the languid phrases of the violin that tests the border between melodic fragments and distorted tones. The "Indian" element is the background of hypnotic tamboura drones, but Flynt's improvisation at the violin betrays the influence of jazz music.

"Ascent To The Sun" (Recorded, 2007) contains a 40-minute piece for overdubbed electric violin recorded in December 2004 and "Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy" (Locust, 2007) collects material recorded between 1974 and 1975 by the punkabilly (not to be confused with psychobilly) band Nova'Billy.

* [http://www.henryflynt.org/aesthetics/meaning_of_my_music.htm Online reading: Henry Flynt's text "The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music"]

Disclaimer concerning Fluxus

Because of his friendship and collaboration with La Monte Young and George Maciunas, Flynt sometimes gets linked to Fluxus. While Flynt himself describes Fluxus as his "publisher of last resort" (Flynt did permit Fluxus to publish his work, and took part in several Fluxus exhibitions) he claims no affiliation or interest in the Fluxus sensibility. [Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press.]

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Henry Flynt, (1975) "Blueprint for a Higher Civilization", Milano
* Henry Flynt, (1988) "Being=Space X Action: Searches for Freedom of Mind Through Mathematics, Art, and Mysticism", edited by Charles Stein, a special issue of Io (#41) on Henry Flynt and Catherine Christer Hennix.
* Henry Flynt, "Concept-Art (1962)", Translated and introduced by Nicolas Feuillie, Les presses du réel, Avant-gardes, Dijon
* Henry Flynt,"Concept Art," in An Anthology, ed. La Monte Young (1st edition, New York, 1963)
* Henry Flynt, "Concept Art" (revised), in An Anthology, ed. La Monte Young (2nd edition, New York, 1970)
* Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press

Discography

*"New American Ethnic Music, Volume 1: You are my Everlovin' + Celestial Power", Recorded Records
*"New American Ethnic Music, Volume 2: Spindizzy", Recorded Records
*"New American Ethnic Music, Volume 3: Hillbilly Tape Music", Recorded Records
*"New American Ethnic Music, Volume 4: Ascent to the Sun", Recorded Records
*"C Tune", Locust Music
*"Raga Electric", Locust Music
*"Backporch Hillbilly Blues, Volume 1", Locust Music
*"Backporch Hillbilly Blues, Volume 2", Locust Music
*"I Don't Wanna", Locust Music
*"Purified by the Fire", Locust Music
*"Henry Flynt & Nova' Billy", Locust Music
*"Graduation And Other New Country & Blues Music", Ampersand

External links

* [http://www.henryflynt.org/ Henry Flynt: Philosophy]
* [http://www.ubu.com/sound/flynt.html Henry Flynt Interviewed by Kenneth Goldsmith on WFMU] February 26, 2004 (3 hours)
* [http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus/hflynt--.html Fluxus: Henry Flynt:ACTION AGAINST CULTURAL IMPERIALISM]
* [http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/NewsletS05/Piekut.htm "Taking Henry Flynt Seriously" by Benjamin Piekut, ISAM Newsletter, Spring 2005]
* [http://www.citypaper.com/music/story.asp?id=8256 Baltimore City Paper article on Flynt's Spindizzy]
* [http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/interviews/flynt.htm Henry Flynt interview from 1989]
* [http://ubu.com/historical/young/index.html pdf file of An Anthology of Chance Operations (1963)] at UbuWeb
* [http://www.recorded.com Recorded Record Label]
* [http://www.locustmusic.com/ Locust Music]
* [http://www.glissando.pl/index.php?s=czasopisma_opis&id=211&t=1 Does Anyone Remember Henry Flynt?: Conceptualism and Raga Rock]