Jack Smith was one of the most accomplished and influential underground artists in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, a key figure in the cultural history of Downtown New York film, performance, and art. Innovative and idiosyncratic, Smith explored and developed a deceptively frivolous camp aesthetic, importing allusions to B-grade Hollywood films and elements of social and political critique into the arena of high art. Less celebrated than the many people he inspired, Smith's multi-media influence is evident in the works of a broad segment of the American Avant Garde (including) Andy Warhol, George Kuchar, Robert Wilson, and Richard Foreman. In his filmmaking, Smith's initial goal was to create a sense of "aesthetic delirium." Through his use of outdated film stock and baroque subject matter, Smith pushed the limits of the medium, liberating it from the straitjacket of "good" technique and "proper" behavior. Smith created No President (43 mins, Color), originally titled The Kidnapping of Wendell Willkie by the Love Bandit, in reaction to the 1968 presidential campaign. It mixes black-and-white footage of Smith's creatures with old campaign footage of Wendell Willkie, the 1940 Republican Presidential candidate. With the performance reel, I Was a Male Yvonne DeCarlo (c. 1970-72, B/W) (corr: and an audio tape of Jack Smith reading from Wait for Me at the Bottom of the Pool.)-Jerry Tartaglia (corr: plus Buzzards over Baghdad (1951, 16mm))