Jack Smith (1932-1989) was a New York-based actor, filmmaker, and photographer known for his pioneering influence in experimental filmmaking and performance art. Smith’s low-budget productions employed camp and kitsch aesthetics, including his best known film, Flaming Creatures. In addition to creating his own works, Smith appeared as an actor in productions by Andy Warhol and Robert Wilson. Smith died in 1989 from AIDS-related pneumonia. This collection consists of materials created by Smith throughout the course of his career as an artist, actor, filmmaker, and photographer. The majority of the collection consists of Smith’s notes, scripts, drawings, flyers, and posters for his films and performance pieces, dating from the early 1960s through the late 1980s. The collection documents not only Smith’s career and creative process, but also the larger landscape of underground cinema and performance art in the 1970s and 1980s.
