Henry Flynt (born 1940 in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

) is an American philosopher, musician, writer, activist, and artist connected to the 1960s New York

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

. He coined the term "

concept art Concept art is a form of visual art used to convey an idea for use in film, video games, animation, comic books, television shows, or other media before it is put into the final product. The term was used by the Walt Disney Animation Studios ...

" in the early 1960s, during which time he was associated with figures in the

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

scene. He later received attention for his

anti-art Anti-art is a loosely used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage poi ...

demonstrations against New York

cultural institution A cultural institution or cultural organization is an organization within a culture or subculture that works for the Preservation (library and archive), preservation or promotion of culture. The term is especially used of public and charitable org ...

s in 1963 and 1964. Since 1983, he has focused on philosophical writing related to

nihilism Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...

, science,

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...

, post-capitalist economics, and

personhood Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a legal person (ei ...

. A number of his archival musical recordings, which fuse hillbilly music with

techniques, were released in the 2000s. He has collaborated with artists such as C.C. Hennix,

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best k ...

George Maciunas George Maciunas (; ; November 8, 1931 Kaunas – May 9, 1978 Boston, Massachusetts) was a Lithuanian American artist, art historian, and art organizer who was the founding member and central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of ...

, and John Berndt.

Background

Henry Flynt was born and raised in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, where he first studied classical

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

. He became interested in

logical positivism Logical positivism, also known as logical empiricism or neo-positivism, was a philosophical movement, in the empiricist tradition, that sought to formulate a scientific philosophy in which philosophical discourse would be, in the perception of ...

as a teenager, and later attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

on a scholarship, where he studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

alongside companions

Tony Conrad Anthony Schmalz Conrad (March 7, 1940 – April 9, 2016) was an American video artist, experimental filmmaker, musician, composer, sound artist, teacher, and writer. Active in a variety of media since the early 1960s, he was a pioneer of both ...

and John Alten. At Harvard, Flynt was introduced to

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and the "New Music" of

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

by graduate students Christian Wolff and

Frederic Rzewski Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. From 1977 up to his eventual death, he lived mainly in Be ...

, and he also discovered

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

music through Samuel Charters's 1959 book on the subject at this time. He soon dropped out and visited New York in 1960, where through Conrad he was introduced to

and other figures in the city's

scene. Young would dedicate his 1960 composition "X for Henry Flynt" to him. In 1960 and 1961, Flynt took part in the monthly concert series held at

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

's Chambers Street loft. He moved permanently to New York in 1963. Flynt’s work developed from what he called "cognitive

", a concept he first announced in the 1960 and 1961 drafts of a paper called ''Philosophy Proper.'' The concept derives from insights about the vulnerabilities of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

and mathematics, and aims to turn the principles of scientific

positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

and

analytical philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

against themselves. Embracing

Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. ...

empiricism In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological view which holds that true knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience and empirical evidence. It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along ...

and his positivist critique of

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

, Flynt concluded that science itself did not satisfy the syntactical criteria for empirical claims; he therefore set about developing a "radical empiricism" (or "radical unbelief") which undermined scientific systematization and much "avant-garde" art. Flynt refined these dispensations in the essay ''Is there language?'' that was published as ''Primary Study'' in 1964.

Concept art and activism

In 1961, Flynt coined the term "

" in the proto-

book '' An Anthology of Chance Operations'' (co-published by Jackson Mac Low and La Monte Young), released in 1963, alongside works by Fluxus artists such as George Brecht and

Dick Higgins Dick Higgins (15 March 1938 – 25 October 1998) was an American artist, composer, art theorist, poet, publisher, printmaker, and a co-founder of the Fluxus international artistic movement (and community). Inspired by John Cage, Higgins was ...

. Flynt's ''concept art'', he maintained, devolved from cognitive nihilism and described art in which the medium was

concept A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...

s. Drawing exclusively on the

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

of logic and mathematics, concept art was meant to surpass both mathematics and "serious" compositional practices by evacuating concepts of substance via

logical paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...

. Flynt maintained that, to merit the label ''concept art'', a work had to be a critique of logic or mathematics in which the material is a linguistic concept, a quality which he claims is absent from subsequent "conceptual art". In 1962, Flynt began to campaign for an

approach to the arts. He advocated that

art and its institutions be superseded by the terms of ''veramusement'' and ''brend''—

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

s meaning (approximately) pure

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...

. As part of his campaign, he demonstrated against cultural institutions in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

(such as

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

and

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

) with

and Jack Smith in 1963 and against the composer

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

twice in 1964 (accusing Stockhausen of

white supremacy White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

and

cultural imperialism Cultural imperialism (also cultural colonialism) comprises the culture, cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" describes practices in which a country engages culture (language, tradition, ritual, politics, economics) to creat ...

). Flynt read publicly from his text, ''From Culture to Veramusment'', at Walter De Maria's loft on February 28, 1963—an act which can, in hindsight, be considered

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. In the mid 1960s, Flynt converted himself to

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, joining the Workers World Party, and published the article "Communists Must Give Revolutionary Leadership in Culture" in collaboration with

, criticizing the

white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

cultural touchstones of the left-wing tradition and championing

African-American music African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their African-American culture, culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the Slavery in ...

. From 1964 to 1966, Flynt wrote regularly for the WWP's '' Workers World'' under the pseudonym "Harry Stone", and edited the newspaper briefly in 1965. He left the party in 1967 after becoming dissatisfied with the party's support of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1987 he revived his "concept art" for tactical reasons; and spent seven years in the art world.

Music

Henry Flynt is known for musical work that attempts to fuse hillbilly music with the

, often with him performing on violin or guitar. Other influences included the

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...

;

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

and

music; and the

North Indian classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of the Indian subcontinent's northern regions. It may also be called North Indian classical music or ''Uttar Bhartiya shastriya sangeet''. The term ''shastriya sangeet'' literally means classica ...

he learned with singer Pandit Pran Nath. With the exception of the 1981 German cassette ''You Are My Everlovin'/Celestial Power'', Flynt's recordings remained unreleased until the 21st century, via labels such as Recorded and Locust. Flynt performed duets with

in the 1960s, but recordings of these performances were rejected by Mainstream Records employee

Earle Brown Earle Brown (December 26, 1926 – July 2, 2002) was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems. Brown was the creator of "open form," a style of musical construction that has influenced many composers since, ...

as being too unconventional for a classical label. In an early 1960s conversation with

, Flynt announced his intention to abandon "serious" modern composition and pursue music in the style of rock artists like

Bo Diddley Ellas Otha Bates (December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist and singer who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, including Buddy ...

and

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...

, to which Cage expressed confusion. Flynt briefly performed violin with

the Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

in 1966 as a fill-in for

John Cale John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, dr ...

, and received guitar lessons from

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

. In 1966, he recorded several rehearsal demo tapes with Walter De Maria, Art Murphy, and Paul Breslin in the

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock music that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The style is ...

band the Insurrections, which were later compiled and released in 2004 on Locust Music as '' I Don't Wanna''. In 1974 and 1975, Flynt led the group Nova'Billy and recorded material spanning rock,

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

, and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

that was later collected on ''Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy'' (Locust, 2007). With Catherine Christer Hennix, Flynt formed the

jazz-rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

group Dharma Warriors in 1978, initially including Arthur Russell on keyboard. ''Dharma Warriors'' (Locust, 2008) showcases another meeting between Hennix & Flynt recorded in 1980 in Woodstock, New York. ''Purified by the Fire'', recorded in December 1981, features Hennix on tamboura and Flynt on electric violin and was released in 2005 on Locust. Flynt's first CD release was a reissue of ''You Are My Everlovin'/Celestial Power'' on Recorded (curated by John Berndt, and initiating the ''New American Ethnic Music'' series on that label), quickly followed by ''Spindizzy'' and ''Hillbilly Tape Music'' also on Recorded. Later Recorded released NAEM 4, ''Ascent to The Sun.'' Recently, Flynt's ''Glissando No. 1'' was published by Recorded (2010).

Philosophy

Flynt's philosophical writing attempts to sketch out a post-capitalist, post-scientific civilization which would be at odds with the current civilization's values. Flynt's early philosophical writings on logic and epistemology, including the 1961 draft of ''Philosophy Proper'', was published in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

in the book ''Blueprint for a Higher Civilization'' (1975). Deriving broadly from his early arguments around "cognitive nihilism" and positivism, Flynt's work aims to overturn the dogmatic

scientism Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...

and apparent coherence of contemporary scientific and mathematical discourse. In the early 1970s, he returned to college to study communist economics. In the late 1970s, he organized several meetings on the "crisis in physics" in an attempt to identify the areas where modern science represses incoherent or irrational logics in order to propagate its "objective" worldview. From about 1980, Flynt has written on philosophy and

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

in mostly unpublished papers, focusing on two concepts which did not achieve the notoriety of the early actions: his concepts of meta-technology and personhood theory. These concepts continue his work in sketching a worldview which would supersede scientific objectification and dissolve contemporary determinations of

objective reality The distinction between subjectivity and objectivity is a basic idea of philosophy, particularly epistemology and metaphysics. Various understandings of this distinction have evolved through the work of countless philosophers over centuries. One b ...

. Much of his writing is now available on his website.

Relationship with Fluxus

Because of his friendship and collaboration with

and

, Flynt sometimes is 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. In fact, he is a strong critic of the neo-Dada sensibility.Owen Smith (1998) Fluxus: The History of an Attitude, San Diego State University Press.

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.

(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)

: The History of an Attitude,

San Diego State University Press San Diego State University Press (or SDSU Press) is a university press that is part of San Diego State University (SDSU), with noted specializations in border studies, critical theory, Latin American studies, cultural studies, and comics. It is th ...

* Christophe Levaux, (2015) ''Henry Flynt et la réinvention des racines culturelles'', tacet 4. *

Kristine Stiles Kristine Stiles (born Kristine Elaine Dolan in Denver, Colorado, 1947) is the France Family Distinguished Professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University. She is an art historian, curator, and artist specializing in global cont ...

& Peter Selz
''Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings''
(Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by Kristine Stiles)

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

2012, reprinting of Henry Flynt, ''Concept Art'' (1961) pp. 974–975.

Discography

*''You Are My Everlovin' / Celestial Power'', Hundertmark/Recorded (1986/2001; recorded 1980–81) *''Graduation and Other New Country and Blues Music'', Ampersand (2001; recorded 1975–79) *''Raga Electric'', Locust Music (2002; recorded 1963–71) *''C Tune'', Locust Music (2002; recorded November 17, 1980) *''Back Porch Hillbilly Blues, Volume 1'', Locust Music (2002) *''Back Porch Hillbilly Blues, Volume 2'', Locust Music (2002) *''New American Ethnic Music, Volume 2: Spindizzy'', Recorded Records (2002; recorded 1968–1983) *''New American Ethnic Music, Volume 3: Hillbilly Tape Music'', Recorded Records (2003; recorded 1971–78, 2001) *'' I Don't Wanna'', Locust Music (2004; recorded 1966) *''Purified by the Fire'', Locust Music (2005; recorded December 14, 1981) *''Henry Flynt & Nova' Billy'', Locust Music (2007; recorded 1975) *''New American Ethnic Music, Volume 4: Ascent to the Sun'', Recorded Records (2007; recorded December 2004) *''Dharma/Warriors'', Locust Music (2008; recorded 1983) *''Glissando No. 1'', Recorded Records (2011; recorded 1978–79)

References

External links

Henry Flynt Philosophy
Collection of Henry Flynt writings
Works by Henry Flynt
at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Henry Flynt Interviewed by Kenneth Goldsmith on WFMU
February 26, 2004 (3 hours)
"Taking Henry Flynt Seriously" by Benjamin Piekut, ISAM Newsletter, Spring 2005Baltimore City Paper article on Flynt's SpindizzyHenry Flynt in New York
(29 videos)

at

UbuWeb UbuWeb is a "a pirate shadow library consisting of hundreds of thousands of freely downloadable avant-garde artifacts." It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives. The site was created by ...

Does Anyone Remember Henry Flynt?: Conceptualism and Raga RockJulian Cope's review of Henry Flynt & the Insurrections - I Don't Wanna
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flynt, Henry 1940 births Living people Musicians from Greensboro, North Carolina American male violinists Fluxus Avant-garde violinists Postmodern artists Artists from New York (state) Mass media theorists American conceptual artists American experimental musicians American noise musicians Postmodern theory Postmodernists 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American classical composers Experimental composers Postmodern composers American male classical composers American classical composers American sound artists Pupils of Pran Nath (musician) 21st-century American violinists Henry Flynt & the Insurrections members 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians Locust Music artists Grimsley High School alumni