The Art Pledge
Portrait of William Anastasi

William Anastasi

Born in
1933
From
Philadelphia, United States of America
Lives and works
New York, United States of America
Represented by
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff

UN goals

 If you think about it, if enough men meditated, you wouldn’t have war, you wouldn’t have murder, you wouldn’t have all the troubles in the world. It can all be traced to man’s inability to sit quietly in a room.

Biography

Coming from a masonry contractor and brickwork salesman background, Philadelphia-born artist William Anastasi built his artistic careers in 1960s Manhattan, growing alongside other Minimalist and Conceptual artists. Bringing sound and action in his performances, drawings, and sculptural projects, Anastasi plays with temporality and the continuum of an object. Close friends with John Cage, the two artists influenced each other and created reciprocity in their works.


We can find William Anastasi’s influence in artists such as Eva Hesse, who also integrated industrial materials in her installations. Exploring the contrasts of organic and man-made there was a similar interest to the effects on the human psyche.


Before becoming one of the pioneers of western abstraction, Wassily Kandinsky also found his inspiration in contact with building and architecture. When entering upon dacha houses, vividly colored houses, he expressed the sensation of entering a painting, of being enveloped by it. Both Anastasi and Kandinsky thus thrive for an all encompassing experience of art.

Career highlights

Solo shows

  • 2018, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France: THREE CONIC SECTIONS
  • 2010, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York City, USA: William Anastasi, John Cage Award (Biennial Award)
  • 2007, The Drawing Center, New York, USA: William Anastasi, Raw [Seven works from 1963 to 1966]
  • 2001, Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen,Denmark: William Anastasi: 1961-2000: A Retrospective
  • 1981, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA: Coincidents

Group shows

  • 2017, Fundacao Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain: Sound of Art ?
  • 2017, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy: Intuition
  • 2016, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France: La Boîte de Pandore: une autre photographie par Jan Dibbets
  • 2016, Total Museum of Contemporary ART, Seoul, South Korea: Through the listening glass...
  • 2013, MoMA, New York City, USA: A Trip from Here to There, Drawings Galleries

Collections

  • Cologne, Germany: Museum Ludwig Koln
  • London, UK: British Museum
  • New York City, USA: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Stockholm, Sweden: Moderna Museet
  • 1993, New York City, USA: MoMA

Media

Selected artworks