Mark McGrath
American singer and television host
Henry Flynt
American musician
Henry Flyntis an American philosopher, musician, writer, activist, and artist connected to the 1960s New York avant-garde. He coined the term “concept art” in the early 1960s, during which time he was associated with figures in the Fluxus scene.
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About the Henry Flynt
Henry Flyntis an American philosopher, musician, writer, activist, and artist connected to the 1960s New York avant-garde. He coined the term “concept art” in the early 1960s, during which time he was associated with figures in the Fluxus scene. He later received attention for his anti-art demonstrations against New York cultural institutions in 1963 and 1964.
Since 1983, he has focused on philosophical writing related to nihilism, science, mathematical logic, post-capitalist economics, and personhood. A number of his archival musical recordings, which fuse hillbilly music with avant-garde techniques, were released in the 2000s. He has collaborated with artists such as C.C. Hennix, La Monte Young, George Maciunas, and John Berndt.
15 Quotes by Henry Flynt
- 1.
When I came to New York, I began to meet the people who became the most famous artists of our time. I was insecure about my own level of ability, I didn’t know whether I could compete with these people and, at the same time. I was wondering what is this anyway?
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 2.
When I began competing with the other artists in New York, I discovered classical North Indian music.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 3.
I began demonstrating against serious culture. In hindsight, the actual course of events has been very humiliating for me, because no one picked up on the intellectual critique I made.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 4.
Basically, I viewed any work of art as an imposition of another person’s taste, and saw the individual making this imposition as a kind of dictator.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 5.
I’m trying to assemble materials for a different mode of life.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 6.
In classical oil painting, there seemed to be a radical turn to seeing things as the camera sees them, with that technological modification. I began to have a tremendous problem with all of this.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 7.
I have a picture of an ideal consciousness.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 8.
I was a student at Harvard, and that’s where I learned about so-called avant-garde music. Jackson Pollock, abstract expressionism and painting were well known at this time.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 9.
At the same time, I was listening to black music, and I began to think that the best musicians were receiving the worst treatment. The people who were doing the greatest work were despised as lower class, with no dignity accorded to what they did.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 10.
I’m actually a great fan of lucidity.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 11.
Rock became an incredible commercial success, people just became bored with serious music, and it was forgotten.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 12.
The whole drive of western culture, the part of it which is serious, is towards an extreme objectification. It’s carried to the point where the human subject is treated almost as if it’s dirt in the works of a watch.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 13.
When somebody says that all statements are false, the obvious problem is that as an assertion it’s self-defeating.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 14.
I began composing works which were imitative of the music I was being told about. I was also very interested in translating the music into visual terms.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician
- 15.
Around 1967 I began backing away from dogmatic Leninism, not so much because I thought it was false, I just decided there was nothing utopian about it.
Henry FlyntAmerican musician