Portfolio - Galerie Jocelyn Wolff

Transcription

WILLIAM ANASTASI
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Updated: April 2016
Born Philadelphia, PA, in 1933
Lives and works in New York, NY
AWARDS
2010
John Cage Award, Foundation for Contemporary Art
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
Solo show, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France
2013
Sound Works, 1963-2013, Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College, New York, USA
2012
Jarry:Du/Joy, Blind Drawings, Walking, Subway, Drop, Vetruvian Man, Still, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff,
Paris
2010
Drawings, Gering & López Gallery, New York, USA
Isabelle Du Moulin und Nils Borch Jensen Galerie, Berlin, Germany
William Anastasi, John Cage Award (Biennial Award)
2009 William Anastasi, Emilio Mazzoli Gallery, Modena, Italy
William Anastasi Retrospective, curator: Inge Merete Kjeldgaard, The Esberg Museum of Modern Art, Esbjerg, Denmark
2008
Opposites Are Identical, Peter Blum Gallery (Chelsea), New York
New works, Stalke Galleri / Stalke Up North / Stalke Out Of Space, Kirke Saaby, DK
2007
William Anastasi, Raw [Seven works from 1963 to 1966], The Drawing Center, New York
William Anastasi, Paintings and drawings, Michael Benevento, The Orange Group, Los Angeles
2006 William Anastasi, Bjorn Ressle Fine Art, New York
William Anastasi, Baumgartner Gallery, New York
2005
Drawings 1970-2005, Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen
Blind, art agents, Hamburg
William Anastasi, Rehbein Gallery, Cologne
2004 William Anastasi, SolwayJones, Los Angeles
2003
Blind, The Annex, NY
2001
William Anastasi: 1961-2000: A Retrospective at the Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen
2000
William Anastasi, art agents, Hamburg
1999 ...vor mehr alseinem halben Jahrhundert, Landes Museum, Linz, Germany
Drawings, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, NY
1998 I Am A Jew, The Philadelphia Museum of Judaica, Philadelphia, PA
1997 The Painting of the Word Jew, Sandra Gering Gallery, NY
William Anastasi, Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, Austria
1996 William Anastasi, Stalke Kunsthandel, Copenhagen, Denmark
1995
William Anastasi: A Retrospective, Moore College of Art, Philadelphia
William Anastasi, The Pier Gallery, Orkney, Scotland
Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, PA, ten manuscript pages from me innerman monophone: Jarry in Joyce, shown alternating with the first ten manuscript pages of James Joyce’s Ulysses
William Anastasi, Anders Tornberg, Lund, Sweden
William Anastasi: A Retrospective (1960-95), Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia,PA
Abandoned Paintings, Sandra Gering Gallery, NY
1994 Kristal Fahl Gallery, Stockholm
Me innerman monophone, oeuvre conceptuelle, exhibition of original manuscript and paper given on “Jarry in Joyce” at the Sorbonne, Paris
1993 Du Jarry, exhibition of original manuscript, Sandra Gering Gallery, NY
Drawing Sounds: An Installation in Honor of John Cage, the Philadelphia Museum of Art
1992 Works 1963-1992, Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund, Sweden
1991
Sink, Trespass, Issue, Incision, Sandra Gering Gallery, NY
1990 Incidents and Coincidents A Retrospective, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
1989 A Selection of Works form 1960 to 1989, The Scott Hanson Gallery, NY, accompanied by a catalogue
The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
1988 Bess Cutler Gallery, NY
Stalke Galleri, Copenhagen
1987 Bess Cutler Gallery, NY
1982 Diary Paintings, Ericson Gallery
1981 Coincidents, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Collapse, Sculpture for a Public Space (commissioned by the museum, exhibited at the Lincoln Center Complex), the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
1979 Re-visions: Perspectives and Proposals in Film and Video, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Coincidents, Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf, Germany
1978 Terminus, the Hudson River Museum, NY
Max Hetzler, Stutttgart
1977 P.S. 1 Museum, the Institute of Art and Urban Resources, NY
1973 O.K. Harris Gallery, NY
1970 Continuum, Dwan Gallery, NY
Three Conic Sections, Dwan Gallery, NY
1967 Six Sites, Dwan Gallery, NY
1966
Sound Objects, Dwan Gallery, NY
1965 Witherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina
1964 Washington Square Gallery, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2016
Drawing Dialogues: selections from the Sol LeWitt Collection, The Drawing Center, New York, USA
CAMÉRA(AUTO)CONTRÔLE, Centre de la photographie Genève, Switzerland
La Boîte de Pandore: une histoire de la photographie par Jan Dibbets, Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville
mmmmmmmmmkde Paris, Paris, France
Portrait de l’artiste en Alter, FRAC Haute-Normandie, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France
2015/16
The Bottom Line, SMAK Gent, Belgium
Alfred Jarry Archipelago, Centre d’art contemporain de la Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France
2015
Tout le monde, Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry - le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
What is a line, curator : Jennifer Farrell, The Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,
Virginia
Passion, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France
Théâtre des opérations, Théâtre de l’usine, Geneva, Switzerland
2014
Dans ma cellule, une silhouette, curator: Lore Gablier, La Ferme du Buisson, France
For Each Gesture Another Character, curator: Kasia Redzisz, Art Stations Gallery, Stary Browar, Poznań, Poland
2013/14
Something More Than a Succession of Notes, Justina Barnicke Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2013 A Trip from Here to There, Drawings Galleries, MOMA, New York, USA
Sol LeWitt collectionneur. Un artiste et ses artistes, Centre Pompidou Metz, France
Something More Than a Succession of Notes, Beton salon, Paris, France
L‘instinct oublié, gallery Jocelyn Wolff exhibits at gallery LAbor, Mexico City, Mexico
A Stone Left Unturned, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, France
2012
Art = Text =Art, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, New Jersey, NJ
2011
Plot, Plan, Process: Works on Paper from the 1960s to Now, Leslie Tonkonow ARTWORKS + PRO
JECTS, New York, NY
Drawn / Taped / Burned: Abstraction on Paper, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Dance/Draw, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Boston, MA; Travels to: Grey Art Gallery,
New York University, New York, NY; Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY;
Artists Collect: Prints from the Collections of Sol LeWitt, Kiki Smith, Philip Taaffe, Richard Tuttle, Inter
national Print Center New York, New York, NY
The Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art Inaugural Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston,
MA
Anti-Photography, curator: Duncan Wooldridge, Focal Point Gallery, Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS2 6EX, United Kingdom
What Is Contemporary Art?, curator: Sanne Kofoed, Artists from the collection, The Museum of Contem
porary Art, Roskilde, Denmark
2010
Intolerance, Curators: Christopher Whittey and Gerald Ross; Decker and Meyerhoff galleries, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
Early Conceptualists, curator: Erik Verhagen and Jocelyn Wolff, Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris.
Connexions, curator: Inge Merete Kil The Esbjerg Museum of Modern Art, Esbjerg, Denmark
Performance Drawings, curator: Helen Molesworth, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Drawn / Taped / Burned: Abstraction on Paper (From the Werner H. Kramarsky Collection), Katonah Mu
seum of Art, Katonah, New York
Reunion 2010: The Night of Future Past: William Anastasi & Dove Bradshaw play chess reminiscent of the 1968 Reunion: Marcel Duchamp and John Cage Chess Match; Kombucha & Raw Canapé Chess, eating and drinking captured pieces, designed by Fluxus artist Takako Saito, Ryerson Theatre, Toronto
At 21: Gifts and Promised Gifts in Honor of The Contemporary Museum’s 20th Anniversary, The Contem
porary Museum of Honolulu, Hawaii
On Paper, curator: Sam Jedig, Stalke Gallery, Kirke-Sonnerup Gallery, Kirke-Sonnerup, Denmark
Quick
Constructions (Trumpets, 2009), Quick Constructions (City Debris, 2009), Quick Constructions
(With Curves, 2009)
Biennial Winter Salon, Curator: Bjorn Ressler & Associate Curator: Jee Yuen Chen; Elga Wimmer
Gallery, New York
Performance Art Benefit, Lehman Maupin Gallery, New York
2009
The Third Mind, American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, curator: Alexndra Munroe, The
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
East/West, Anastasi, Bradshaw, Flavin, Kuwayama, Bjorn Ressle Gallery, New York
Space As Medium, William Anastasi, Lynda Benglis, Tom Burr, Eugenio Wspinoza, Ryan Gander,Katharina
Grosse, Wade Guyton, Toba Khedoori, Nicolas Lobe, Charles Ray, Fred Sandback, Simon
Starling, Rachel Whiteread, Miami Art Museum
ONE Copenhagen, Six Americans / Six Danes, curator: Dove Bradshaw; Stalke Up North, Copenhagen (Zero Space, Zero Time, Infinite Heat, 1988) ONE Copenhagen on-line catalogue
ONE More, Cologne, Dedicated to Sol LeWitt, curator: Dove Bradshaw; the Mildred Lane Kem
per Art Museum, St Louis, MO
Gifts and Promised Gifts in Honor of The Contemporary Museum’s 20th Anniversary, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
2008
The Title of This Show, curator: Mario Garcia Torres, William Anastasi, Eduardo Costa, Dan Graham, Stephen Kaltenbach, Jan Mot Gallery, Brussels
Subversive Spaces: Surrealism and Contemporary Art, The Whiteworth Art Gallery, The Victoria University
of Manchester, Manchester, UK
No Regrets Sam Jedig, artists: Anastasi, Williams, Weiner, Dahlgaard, Ebbesen, Lone and Albert Mertz; Stalke Up North, Copenhagen
New York New Drawings 1946-2007, Selections from the Werner H. Kramarsky Collection, curators: Ana Martinez de Aquilar, Director, José Maria Pareno Velasco, Deputy Director, Museo
de Art Contemporaneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain; Museo de Art Contemporaneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
Five Americans, curator: Sam Jedig, Lawrence Anastasi,William Anastasi, William Antony, Dove
Bradshaw, Michael Coughlan; Borup Artcenter, Copenhagen, Denmark
Choosing, curator: Robert Barry; Andrée Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg.
Winter Salon-Works on Paper, cuator: BjÖrn Ressle; BjÖrn Ressle Gallery, New York
Brooklyn Rail Benefit, Pace Gallery, New York
Aldrich Museum Benefit, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT
ONE More: Dedicated to Sol LeWitt, curator: Bradshaw; Esbjerg Museum of Modern Art, Esbjerg, Den
mark
2007
One, In memoriam: Sol LeWitt; curator: Dove Bradshaw; Anastasi, Andre, Barry, Bradshaw,
Hafif, Highstein, Kretschmer, LeWitt, Nonas, Wagner, Bjorn Ressle Gallery, New York Blind
January 19-27, 2007, The Annex, New York
Anastasi, Bradshaw, Cage, Cunningham, curator: Dove Bradshaw, University Art Gallery, Univer
sity of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA
Anastasi, Bradshaw, Cage, Cunningham, curator: Dove Bradshaw University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA.
LeWitt x 2, curator: Dean Swanson; Kirke Sonnerup, Denmark.
LeWitt x 2, curator: Dean Swanson, curator: Dean Swanson; artists: same as above; The Miami
Art Museum
Benefit for the Museum of Contemporary Art, LAMOCA, Los Angeles
Invention, Merce Cunningham & Collaborators, curators: Barbara Cohen-Stratyner, Judy R and Alfred A. Rosenberg, Curator of Exhibitions at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Michell Potter,
Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the NY Library for the Performing Arts; and David Baufhan,
Archivist of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts,
Lincoln Center, New York
Winter Salon, Bjorn Ressle Fine Art, New York
White Box Annex, artists: William Anastasi, Dove Bradshaw, among others, White Box Annex, New York
2006
Twice Drawn, curator: Sol LeWitt, artists: Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York October 7 - December 30, 2006
LeWitt x 2, curator: Dean Swanson; artists: same as above; inaugurating the new building of the
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin
Aldrich Undercover, Aldrich Museum Exhibition and Benefit, Ridgefield, CT
2005
Edge Level Ground: William Anastasi, Dove Bradshaw, Ulrigh Erben, Jack Sal, Christian Sery,
Stephanie Hering Gallery, Berlin
Anastasi Bradshaw Cage Cunningham, curators: Marianne Bech and Dove Bradshaw; The University Art Museum, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia (25 works: paintings, sculptures, work on paper, DVDs, dance collaborations with John Cage and Merce Cunningham
William Anastasi / Dove Bradshaw, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
Poles Apart, Poles Together, curator: Juan Puntes; 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Reality, curator: Sam Jedig; Kirke Sonnerup, Denmark
2004
Work Ethic, The Baltimore Museum of Art, curated by Helen Molesworth, traveled to Des Moines
Art Center in Iowa (May 15, 2004-August 1, 2004) and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Colum
bus, Ohio (September 17, 2004-January 2, 2005) (catalogue)
Selections from the Sol LeWitt Collection, New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT
View Point: Works from the Museum Collection, curator: Marianne Bech; The Samstidskunst Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark
Opening Celebration of the Rubin Museum of Art, The Museum of Tibetan Art, The Flag Project
at the invitation of the museum and Kiki Smith, New York
Infinite Possibilities: Serial Imagery in Twentieth Century Drawings, Curator: Anja Chavez, Da
vis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
Stereognost & Propriocept, curated by Koan Jeff Baysa and Donald Kunze, The Lab Gallery, New York.
2003
The Invisible Thread: Buddhist Spirit in Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor NYC
Group show, Davidson Art Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Unexpected Dimensions: Works from the LeWitt Collection, curator: Sol LeWitt, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain
Unexpected Dimensions: Works from the LeWitt Collection, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
LeWitt’s LeWitts, curator: Sol LeWitt; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CWhite
Box Benefit Auction, Cohan Gallery, New York
2002
Memorial Concert For John Cage, 1912- 1992, Composers/musicians: Emanuel Dimas De Melo Pimenta, Peter Zummo, Fast Forward; Performances: William Anastasi, Ledger, Dove Bradshaw, Fire, Garry Tatinsian Gallery, New York
Charles Carpenter Collection, curator: Richard Kline, The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT
Blobs, wiggles and dots, webs and crustillations, curator: Lucio Pozzi, The Work Space, New York
Mattress Factory 25th Anniversary Auction, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
Whitebox Benefit, curator: Juan Puntes, Whitebox Gallery, New York
Collaborations, Dieu Donne, New York
Benefit for the Drawing Center, 25th Anniversary Benefit Selections Exhibition, From For
merly Exhibited Artists, The Drawing Center, New York
Mattress Factory 25th Anniversary Auction, curator: Michael Olijnyk; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh
Twenty Years of Danish Art, Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen
2001
Visions From American Art: Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1940-
2001, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Anastasi, Bradshaw, Cage, curator: Marianna Bech and Dove Bradshaw, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark
Blind Man’s Bluff [four timed, sound Blind Drawings made by four invited executors, Concep tual Art Today, Pittsburg Center for the Arts, 2001
Century of Innocence, The History of the White Monochrome, curator: Bo Nilsson, Rooseum Contemporary Art Center, Malmo, Sweden
2000
Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964-1977, The Whitney Museum of Ame
rican Art, New York; curated by Chrissie Iles
The Century of Innocence: The History of the White Monochrome, Rooseum Museum of Art, Malmo, and Liljevalchs Konstall, Stockholm, curator: Bo Nilsson
Photographic Re-View, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, New York
Topology, White Box Gallery, New York
This is What It Is, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson, NY
Destruction/Creation, curator: Rosa Essman and Adam Boxer, Ubu Gallery, New York, exhibited
Indeterminacy XXVIII (vermont marble cube and pyrite)
End Papers, Drawings 1890-1900 1990-2000, curator: Judy Collischan, The Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
The American Century, 1950-2000, The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
New Works, curator: Sam Jedig; Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen
1999
Afterimage, curator: Connie Butler, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Merce Cunningham Fifty Years, La Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona. Traveled to: Fundaçao
De Seralves, Porto, Portugal; Castello Di Rivoli, Italy; Museum Moderna Kunst, Stiftung Palais
Lichtenstein, Vienna, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, William Anastasi, Robert Rauschenberg, Morris Graves,
Dove Bradshaw, among others.
Manna Benefit for the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibet, curated by Elizabeth Rogers, White
Box Gallery, New York
Benefit, Sculpture Center, New York
1998
Drawing is another kind of language: Recent American drawings from a New York private collection, Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Ahlen, Germany
Re:Duchamp/Contemporary Artists Respond to Marcel Duchamp’s Influence, Abraham Lubelski Gallery,
New York
Dove Bradshaw, William Anastasi, Margrethe Sorensen, Torbin Ebbeson, curator: Sam Jedig,
Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen
Pieces, curator: Silvia Netzer, 128 Gallery, New York
1997
Drawing is another kind of language: Recent American drawings from a New York private collection, Harvard University, Sackler Gallery, Cambridge, MA
From Time to Time, curators: Sarah Slavick and Kevin Rainey, Iris and Gerald B. Cantor Art Gallery, College
of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
Word to Word, Linda Kirkland Gallery, NY
10th year anniversary group show, Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Charles Carpenter Collection, curator: Mark Francis; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1996
Group show, Hubert Winter Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Group show, Linda Kirkland Gallery, NY
Drawing on Chance (Selections from the Collection), Museum of Modern Art, NY
Time Wise, curator: Karen Kuoni, The Swiss Institute, NY
Charles Carpenter Collection, curator: Mark Francis; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York in 1997.
1995
Sound Sculpture: Music for the Eyes, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, Germany
Joyce and the Visual Arts, The Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia, PA
Dark Room, Stark Gallery, NY
The Photography Show 1995, curator: Barry Singer; Singer Photography, Petaluma, CA , AI
PAD, New York (Medium, 1992)
1994
Drawings, with Dove Bradshaw, Indeterminacy, Werner H. Kramarsky, New York
Autobodyography, with Dove Bradshaw, Contingency, Sandra Gering Gallery, NY
1993
Rolywholyover Circus (an exhibition based on the life and work of John Cage), curators: John Cage and Julie Lazar, 50 Artists selected by John Cage beginning with Marcel Duchamp and Thoreau, The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; Traveled to: The Menil Collection, Houston; Solomon R Guggen
heim Museum, Soho, New York; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; Mito Art Tower, Mito, Japan,William Anastasi Drawing Sounds: An Installation in Honor of John Cage, curated by Ann D’Harnoncourt; The Phi
ladelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
The Return of the Cadavre Exquis, curator: Anne Philbin, The Drawing Center, New York; Traveled to: Cor
coran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica; Forum for Contempo
rary Art, St. Louis; The American Center, Paris, The American Center, Paris, exhibited drawing with William
Anastasi and Merce Cunningham
Concurrencies II, curator: Lucio Pozzi, William Patterson College, New Jersey
William Anastasi Drawing Sounds: An Installation in Honor of John Cage, curator: Ann D’Harnoncourt; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (Without Title [Sound Drawing], 1993, half hour drawing with
micro-cassette recording of its making)
The Return of the Cadavre Exquis, curator: Anne Philbin; The Drawing Center, New York; trave
led to: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica; Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis; The American Center, Paris
Merce Cunningham Dance Company Benefit, Cunningham Dance Foundation, New York
1992
Concurrencies, curator: Lucio Pozzi, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, NY
1991
How to Use Small Areas in a Dozen Different Ways to Bring a Room to Life, curator: Bogdan Perzryuski, Arte Museum, Austin, Texas
1990
Casino Fantasma, curator: Allana Heiss, Winter Casino, Venice, Italy
Anastasi, Bradshaw, Cage, Marioni, Rauchenberg, Tobey (Work from John Cage’s collection) curator: Dove Bradshaw, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York
1989
Benefit for the Contemporary Performance Arts, selected and hung by Jasper Johns, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY
Chaos, curator: Laura Trippi, The New Museum, New York
1988
Benefit for Merce Cunningham Dance Company, curator: David Vaughan;
Group show, Stalke Galleri, Copenhagen
Group show, Brigitte March Gallery Stuttgart
Espace des Concept Art, Chalon sur Saone, Copenhagen, Stuttgart, Art Cologne, Cologne
Re-opening of the Jewish Museum, The Jewish Museum, New York
Group show, Stux Gallery, Boston
1987
Group show, Bess Cutler Gallery, New York
Reading Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Merce Cunningham and His Collaborators: William Anastasi, Dove Bradshaw, John Cage, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
Bob Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Bruce Nauman, Mark Lancaster, Morris Graves, Lehman College Art Gallery, City University of New York, exhibited design for Points in Space, 1987, World première, City Center, New York and for the Opera de Paris Garnier, Paris, Commissioned by Artistic Director, Rudolf Nureyev.. June, 1993. Music: John Cage; Design: William Anastasi; Bradshaw: Costumes for stage.
On Line, An Exhibition of Drawings, curator: Billy Biondi; City Without Walls, Newark, New Jersey, Benefit
for AIDS, curator: Susan Lorence and Bob Monk, Lorence Monk Gallery, New York
1985
Group show, Science Museum, Koran-Sha Company, Tokyo
1983
Film as Installation II, curator: Leandro Katz; The Clocktower, NY
1983
Benefit for Merce Cunningham Dance Company, hung by Jasper Johns, Castelli Gallery, New York
1982
Annual Awards, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
Exhibition in Honor of John Cage, curator: Judith Pisar, The American Center, Paris
Artists: William Anastasi, Dove Bradshaw, John Cage.
Biennial ‘81, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Group Show, Erickson Gallery, NY
1981
8 Painters, curator: Dove Bradshaw, The Ericson Gallery, NY
Group Show, curator: Takis Efstanthiou, Ericson Gallery, New York.
1980
Film as Installation, The Clocktower, New York
Fur Augen und Ohren, Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin, W. Germany
Ecoute par les Yeux, Musee D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1979
Sound, curator: Alanna Heiss, P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, New York
Terminus, The Hudson River Museum, New York
Benefit for Contemporary Performance Arts, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Fluxus’ New Interpreters, curator: Peter Frank, Interart Gallery, New York
Group show, Paula Cooper Gallery, NY
Group show, Anna Canepa, Video Distribution, NY
Couples, curator: Alanna Heiss; PS1 Contemporary Art Center, LIC, New York
1978
Art For Jimmy Carter, The Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
1977
Projects for the Seventies, An Exhibition assembled by the Institute for Art and Urban Resources
which traveled to Lisbon, Warsaw, Ankara, Tel Aviv, Bucharest, Madrid, Reykjavik, Ottawa
1976 – 77
Open to New Ideas: Art for Jimmy Carter, An exhibition assembled for the Georgia Museum’s permanent collection which toured the major U.S. Museums
1972
Group show, Paula Cooper Gallery, NY
1970
Group show, Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
Group show, Musee D’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Group show, E.A.T. Benefit, Leo Castelli Gallery, NY
Group Show, Dwan Gallery, New York
Artists: Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Tinguley, Niki De San Phalle.
1967
Language, Dwan Gallery, New York
1964
Group show, Betty Parsons Gallery, NY
ARTISTIC ADVISOR TO THE MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY
Appointed along with Dove Bradshaw
Phrases, 1984, World première, Theatre Municipal d’Angers, Angers France. Music: David Vaughn; Design: William Anastasi; Bradshaw
Native Green, 1985, World première, City Center. Music: John King; Design: William Anastasi; Bradshaw: Lighting for stage
Grange Eve, World premiere, City Center Theater, New York, Music: Takehisa Kosugi; Décor , Costumes and Lighting: William Anastasi
Points In Space, 1986, World Premiere, BBC Television, Music: John Cage; Décor: William Anastasi; Costumes: Dove Bradshaw
Points In Space, 1990, commissioned by Rudolf Nureyev, Opera de Paris Garnier, Paris, Music: John Cage; Décor: William
Anastasi; Costumes: Dove Bradshaw
Fielding Sixes, 1986, World Premiere City Center Thearer, New York, Music: John Cage; Décor, Costumes and Lighting:
William Anastasi
Shards, 1987, World Premiere, City Center Theater, New York, Music” David Tudor; Décor and Lighting: William Anastasi
Eleven, 1988, World Premiere Joyce Theater, New york, Music: Robert Ashley; Décor, Costumes and Lighting, William Anastasi
Events, 1989, World Premiere, Grand Central Station, New York, Music: David Tudor; Costumes: William Anastasi and Dove
Bradshaw
Polarity, 1990, World Premiere, Citly Center Theater, New York, Music: David Tudor; Décor from drawings by Merce Cunningham, Costumes and Lighting, William Anastasi
PERFORMANCES
2002
Celebrate John Cage, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, NY
1997
William Anastasi: Printed Out, the Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
1995
me innerman monophone, Aktion Fete du Printemps, NY
William Anastasi, Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund, Sweden
1987
This, The Danheiser Foundation
1982
Plants and Waiters, produced at Princeton University by the Princeton Players,
Princeton, NJ
1980
Plants and Waiters, a play by William Anastasi, The Amphitheatre, The School
of Visual Arts, NY, Mar. 6, 13, 20
1979
A Peeling, I Forgive Sleep, Coincidents, 3 performances by William Anastasi,
The Visual Arts Museum, NY, Nov. 6, 13, 20
1978
You Are (Three Evenings from William Anastasi), narrated by Les Levine, Feb.
10; Carl Keilblock, Feb. 11; John Cage, Feb 12 The Clocktower, NY
You Are (Three Evenings from William Anastasi), narrated by William Anastasi, The Visual Arts Museum, NY
You Are narrated by William Anastasi, Madama Francesca Allenovi (Italian), Arte Fiera Bologna, Italy, Palachi
dei Congressi, Bologna, Italy
LECTURES
2007
William Anastasi: Works, Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art, Pont-Aven, France
2006
William Anastasi’s Pataphysical Society, Jarry, Joyce, Duchamp and Cage, Art and Science Department,
University of Pennsylvania
Anastasi Bradshaw Cage Cunningham; Friendship and Collaboration, Gallery Talk at the opening of Anastasi Bradshaw Cage Cunningham, The University Art Gallery, The University of California at San Diego,
La Jolla, CA
2004
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Anastasi Bradshaw Cage Cunningham; A Conversation, Gallery Talk at the opening of Anastasi Bradshaw
Cage Cunningham, The Bayly Art Museum, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Public Conversation With William Anastasi and Jean-Michel Rabate, Feb. 28th at the Rosenbach Mu
seum & Library, Philadelphia
2003
Test Art after The Silence, Davison Arts Center, Middletown, CT
2001
The Legacy of John Cage, Speakers, William Anastasi, Dove Bradshaw, Carol Hamilton, Associate Profes
sor of English, Carnegie Mellon University, Michael Olijnyk, moderator, The Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh
2000
The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
1998
The Greenhill School, Dallas, TX
1997
The Painting of the Word Jew, panel discussion with Richard Milazzo and
Douglas F. Maxwell
1995
Duchamp on the Jarry Road, Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Gardens,
Edinburgh
Jarry in Joyce, lecture and exhibition of two-hundred pages from me innerman monophone: Jarry in Joyce,
Brown University, Providence, RI, James Joyce Conference
Jarry in Joyce, The Society for Textual Studies, NY
1994
me innerman monophone: Jarry in Joyce, The Sorbonne, Paris
Legenda; The New Literariness in Art, School of Visual Arts, NY; panel with Kenneth Goldsmith, Ashley King, Clooier Schorr, and Barry Schwabsky
1993
Du Jarry (Jarry in Duchamp) & me innerman monophone (Jarry in Joyce), Sandra Gering Gallery; panel with Thomas McEvilley and Marlena G. Corcoran
1992
Cage, Duchamp Fats and Crazy, The Art Institute of Chicago
1991
Yale University
1988
Marcel Duchamp Panel, Art in America, Charles F. Stuckey moderator
1981 The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
1979
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
The Hudson River Museum, NY
1978
P.S. 1 The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, NY, “Couples” panel
1977
The University of Georgia, Athens, GA
1970
The School of Visual Arts, New York
1965
University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
Atlanta School of Art and Design, Atlanta, GA
RADIO
1993
WBAI, August 19, 2-3:30am, in commemoration of John Cage with Peter Schmidig
1992
WBAI, August 16, 11pm, panel of close associates of John Cage, Peter Schmidig
TELEVISION
1993
Endings and Beginnings, September 26, 12:30am, ABC, discussing the painting of the word “Jew,” the Jewish Museum, New York
SPECIAL EDITIONS
1975
The Anastasi Puzzle, Special Edition for the Museum of Modern Art, New York (edition of 3000)
1976
The Anastasi Puzzle, (second edition of 1000)
1979
Puzzle Puzzle, Special Edition for The Museum of Modern Art, NY. (edition of 5000)
MONOGRAPHS
William Anastasi, Essay by Richard Milazzo, Galleria Contemporanea, Emilio, Mazzoli, Modena, Italy, 2009
William Anastasi, Drawing Papers, 70 A Word, words, The Drawing Center, 2007
William Anastasi’s Pataphysical Society: Jarry, Joyce, Duchamp and Cage, Edited by Aaron Levy and Jean-Michel Rabate,
Philadelphia Slought Books, Contemporary Artist’s Series No. 3, 2005
William Anastasi, Jakob Lillemose, Copenhagen, Cologne, Hamburg, Stalke, Rehbein, Art Agents, 2004
William Anastasi: The Painting of the Word Jew, Stalke Out of Space, Copenhagen, and Sandra Gering Gallery, NY, 1997.
Hanhardt, John and Eileen Neff, William Anastasi: A Retrospective, 1960-1995, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia,
PA, 1995.
William Anastasi: Works from 1961 to 1995, The Pier Gallery, Stromness, Scotland, 1995.
William Anastasi: Sink, 1963; Trespass, 1966; Issue, 1966; Incision, 1966, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, 1991.
William Anastasi: Selections of the Work from 1960-1989, Scott Hanson Gallery, NY, 1989.
BOOKS & EXHIBITION CATALOGUES
560 Broadway, A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991-2006, Fifth Floor Foundation, New York & Yale University
Press, New Haven, CT, 2008 pp. 17, 23, 46-47, 141
McEvilley, Thomas, Wall Ceiling Floor at the Birmingham Museum of Art, William Anastasi, Donald Judd, Fred Sandback,
Birmingham, AL, 2007
The Triumph of Anti-Art, by Thomas McEvilley, McPherson and Company, New York, 2005, pp. 104-135.
Drawing From The Modern, 1945-1975, Museum of Modern Art, 2005, p.178
Lerm Hayes, Christa-Maria, Joyce In Art, Visual Art Inspired by James Joyce, Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2005
Nothing Less Than Literal/ Architecture After Minimalism, MIT Press, 2004, p. 94.
Master Works of the Jewish Museum, Untitled (jew) by Norman Kleeblat, Jewish Museum, 2004, pp. 188, 189.
Work Ethic, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2003/05, Helen Molesworth, Julia Bryan-Wilson , pp. 109 – 111
Especies D’Espais Des Especes d’espaces, Centre d’Art Contemporani, Toronto, Canada, 2003/04 pp. 52, 53
The Invisible Thread, Newhouse Center For Contemporary Art, 2003/4, by William Anastasi, p.18, 19
Infinite Possibilities: Serial Imagery in Twentieth Century Drawings, Davis Museum and Cultural Center Press, Wellesley, MA,
2003, pp. 52, 53.
Anastasi Bradshaw Cage, Jacob Lillemose, Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark, 2001, pp. 42-56.
Conceptual Art Today, Pittsburg Center for the Arts, 2001
Ratcliff, Carter, Out of the Box: The Reinvention of Art 1965-1975, Allworth Press, 2000 pp. 58, 64, 103.
End Papers, Drawings 1890-1900 and 1990-2000, curated by Judy Collischan, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, NY, 2000, p.24
After Image: Drawing Through Process, curated by Cornelia H. Butler, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1999
pp. 11, 12, 46,139.
Hayden-Guest, Anthony, True Colors, The Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 1998, p. 96.
Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years, Aperture Foundation, NY, 1997, p. 226, 227, 229, 231, 232, 235, 238, 252.
Morgan, Robert C., Between Modernism and Conceptual Art, McFarland & Company, Inc. Publications, Jefferson, N.C. and
London, 1997, p. 156-159.
Rugoff, Ralph, Scene of the Crime, UCLA and Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, and MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
, London, England, 1997
Drawing is Another Kind of Language, Harvard University Art Museum, 1997, p. 24, 25.
Klangs Skulpturen Augen Musik, Koblenz, Ludwig Museum, 1995, p.36-39
Anastasi, William with Michael Seidel, “Jarry in Joyce: A Conversation,” Joyce Studies Annual, Edited by Thomas F. Staley,
University of Texas Press, Austin, 1995.
Bayer Collection of Contemporary Art, Bayer Corporation, White Oak Publishing LTD, Sewickly, PA, 1995, pp. 4,5.
Morgan, Robert C., “Environment, Site, Displacement,” After the Deluge: Essays on Art in the Nineties, New York: Red
Bass, 1993, p.72.
Looking Critically: 21 Years of ArtForum Magazine, Brian O’Doherty, “Inside The White Cube”, Notes on the gallery space
Part One: pp. 188-193., ArtFroum, New York, 1984
School of Visual Arts Fine Arts Faculty, SVA Press LTD, New York, 1982, pp. 6-7
Battcock, Gregory, Breaking the Sound Barrier, Dutton, NY, 1981.
Open To New Ideas, Georgia Museum of Art, 1976-1977, p.4, 5.
Battcock, Gregory, Why Art: Casual Notes on the Aesthetics of the Immediate Past, Dutton, NY, 1977
Lippard, Lucy, Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966- 1972, 1972, p.25
Battcock, Gregory, Idea Art - A Critical Anthology, Dutton, NY, 1973.
Third Salon International de Galeries Pilots Artists et docouvreurs de notre temps, Lausanne/Paris, 1970, p.134.
Battcock, Gregory, Minimal Art - A Critical Anthology, Dutton, NY, 1968, pp. 21, 31, 407.
Betty Parsons’ Private Collection, Finch College Museum of Art, New York, 1968
ARTICLES
Jarry in Duchamp, New Art Examiner, October 1997, pp.10-15.
Duchamp on the Jarry Road, ArtForum, September 1991, pp. 86-90.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (SELECTION)
2014
Alan Licht, «Easy Listening», Art Forum, February 2014
«Dans ma cellule, une silhouette», Le journal, La Ferme du Buisson, February 2014
Kim Levin, «William Anastasi», ARTNews, January 2014
2013
«William Anastasi: Sound Works, 1963-2013», Art & Education, November 2013
Schwendener Martha, «William Anastasi : «Sound Works, 1963-2013», New York Times, October 24, 2013
Roven, Revue critique sur le dessin contemporain, n°9, printemps-été 201, pp. 52-55
Schmidlin Laurence, «L’événement du dessin», Roven, Revue critique sur le dessin contemporain, N°10
/
automne-hiver 2013-2014, Numéro spécial «Dessin et Performance», pp. 10-29
2012
Piettre Céline, «L’artiste Américain William Anastasi : un invité de marque chez Jocelyn Wolff», Artinfo, December 2012
Lequeux Emmanuelle, «Mes oeuvres sont l’ici et le maintenant» William Anastasi, Le Quotidient de l’Art, N.258, November 13th, 2012
Diaz Eva, Notations : The Cage effect today, Hunter College/Times Square Gallery, Artforum, Summer 2012
2008
Johnson, Ken, ”Hunting A Tribe of Minimalists on the Streets of the Upper East Side”, The New York Times, January 5, 2008, Art Review
Richardson, Vicky, “Blueprint, January 2008”, William Anastasi Subway Drawing, by, pp. 48-51
2007
Macaulay, Alastair, Design Meets Dance and Rules Are Broken, New York Times, Sunday, June 17th, 2007, p. 8
Frankel, David, ArtForum, October 2007, Reviews: William Anastasi, The Drawing Center, p.370
Anastasi, William, RAW, Self Interview, Art on Paper, New York, 2007, pp. 70-72
Newhall, Edith, The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Drawings that doth the ‘I’ in ink, Art Museums; Galleries, July 20, 2007
Bui, Phong, The Brooklyn Rail, July/August 2007, In Conversation, William Anastasi with Phong Bui, p. 34
2006
Boucher, Brian, “William Anastasi and Lucio Pozzi at Whitebox”, Art In America, New York, 2006, p.182
Glueck, Grace, New York Times, William Anastasi, Works From the 1960’s to the Present, Bjorn Ressle Fine Art, 2006
Powhida, William, The Brooklyn Rail, June 2006, William Anastasi, Works from the 1960’s to the present, Bjorn Ressle Fine Art, p. 30
Boucher, Brian, Art in America, December 2006, Rereading Anastasi, Bjorn Ressle Gallery, New York, PP. 138- 141
McEvilley, Thomas, “Contemporary”, 2006, London, UK, William Anastasi, by, pp. 20-23
2005
Yazdani, Mehrdad, Salt of the Earth, Anastasi Bradshaw Cage Cunningham at the University Art Gallery, University of California at San Diego, 2005
Puvogel, Renate, “William Anastasi Blind”, Kunstforum International September- October, 2005, pp. 387-
389
2004
The Irish Times, July 23, 2004, Joyce In Art, Royal Hibernian Academy Gallagher Gallery, 2004
Mar, Alex, Paper Trail Intelligencer «The drawings collector who’s got the art world talking», 7/23/04
2003
Kimmelman, Michael, The New York Times, May 11, 2003, The Forgotten Godmother of Dia’s Artists, Art/
Architecture p. 19, 2003
Mikael, Wivel, Passion, Vendsyssel Kunst Museum, Sophienholm, Denmark, 2003, p.73-77
Friends of the Davison Art Center, Unexpected Dimensions: Works From the LeWitt Collection, Newsletter Fall, 2003
2001
Bang Larsen, Lars, ArtForum, William Anastasi, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, 2001
Jansson, Peder, Sculpture Magazine, William Anastasi July/August, 2001, Copenhagen Contemporary Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
Art Center
Pohl, Eva, Berlingske Tidende, Jan. 6, 2001, Review: A Pathfinder In American Art
Movin, Lars, Only Ideas Can Be Art, “Information”, Copenhagen, January 9, 2001
Sandbye, Mette, Weekendavisen, Jan. 12-18, 2001, Review: William Anastasi, Stalke Gallery, Copenha
gen, The Music of Chance
1999 Walsh, Daniella, Show, Oct. 3, 1999, Reviews: Ideas In Things, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Rethinking The Familiar In Art, p.30
Blizzard, Peggy, Connections, Sept. 16, 1999, Reviews: Ideas In Things, Irvine Fine Arts Center, pp. B1, B6
Schoenkopf, Rebecca, Orange County Weekly, Reviews: “Ideas In Things, Irvine Fine Arts Center, It’s Quite Clearly A Monkey!” , Sept. 30, 1999,
Anastasi, William, “Without Title, 1988, Lithograph, New York Arts, December, 1999
1998
McEvilley, Tom, “William Anastasi: A Retrospective in Prints,” Art on Paper, November/December 1998, pp. 39-43
McDonough, Tom, “William Anastasi at Sandra Gering,” Art in America, May 1998, p.127.
Temin, Christine, “Drawing their own conclusions,” Boston Globe, January 21, 1998
1997
Mendelsohn, John, “Three-Letter Word,” Jewish Week, November 14, 1997
Cohen, Mark Daniel and Neuman, Elizabeth, “William Anastasi: The Painting of the Word Jew at Sandra Gering,” Review, November 1, 1997.
Hofleitner, Johanna, “William Anastasi at Hubert Winter,” Flash Art, October 1997
1996
Kyander, Pontus, “William Anastasi: Anders Tornberg Gallery, Material: Journal of Contemporary Art, No. 29, Summer 1996
Morgan, Anne Barclay, “Interview: William Anastasi,” Art Papers, November/December 1995
Wasserman, Buron, “Anastasi exhibit to be experienced, not explained,” Art Matters, July/August 1995
Sozanski, Edward J., “Aesthetics by chance: Heads it’s art, tails it’s not,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, We
dnesday, June 7, 1995
McLead, Duncan, “Change and Decay: Review of William Anastasi and Dove Bradshaw,” Scottish Press, September 1995
Schwabsky, Barry, “William Anastasi, Sandra Gering Gallery,” Artforum, May 1995
Karmel Pepe, “Also of Note,” The New York Times, March 24, 1995
1994
Ritchie, Matthew, “The Word Made Flesh,” Flash Art, May/June 1994.
Rubinstein, Raphael, “William Anastasi at Sandra Gering,” Art in America, April 1994
MoMA Annual Report, 1993/4, p. 33, 34
1993
Anastasi, William, “Jarry, Joyce, Duchamp and Cage,” essay commissioned for and published in the Catalogue to the Venice Biennale, 1993
Tallmer, Jerry, “Rebuilt museum resumes its tale of Jews’ journey,” New York Post, June 19, 1993
1992
Anastasi, William, me innerman monophone, Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund, Sweden, 1992
Words, Kukje Gallery, South Korea, 1992
1991
E.H., “William Anastasi, Sandra Gering Gallery,” ARTnews, December 1991
Virginia Dwan Art Minimal –Art Conceptuel Earthworks, New York, Les Annees 60-70, Gallery Montaigne, 1991
1990
Kalina, Richard, “William Anastasia: Deadpan Conceptualist,” Art in America, January 1990.
1989
ArtForum, March, 1989, “Drawing a Self Portrait”, p. 20
Garrels, Gary, “The Work of Andy Warhol,” Dia Art Foundation, 1989, pp.3, 143
1988
Stuckey, Charles F., Monet Water Lilies, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., NY, 1988
Bomb, Untitled, New Art Publications, New York, 1988, p. 73
William Anastasi: Drawing a Self Portrait, ArtForum, 1986, p.20.
1987
McEvilley, Thomas, “William Anastasi, Bess Cutler Gallery,” Artforum, May 1987
1986
O’Doherty, Brian, Inside the White Cube, Lapis Press, 1976/1986
1985
McEvilley, Thomas, “I Think Therefore I Art,” Artforum, Summer, 1985
1984
Battcock, Gregory & Nickas, Robert, The Art of Performance - A Critical Anthology, Dutton, NY, 1984
Anastasi, William, “Artist’s Pages: The Creative Process,” Vantage Point, Sept/Oct 1984
1983
Schwartz, Eugene M, Art greats to be…, Bottom Line Personal, October 30, 1983
1982
Gerrit, Henry, “William Anastasi at Ericson,” Art in America, September 1982
“Video,” The American Federation of Arts Newsletter, Winter, 1982
“Review of Exhibitions,” Art in America, September 1982
1975
O’Doherty, Brian, “Inside the White Cube: Notes on the Gallery Space,” Artforum, March 1975
1971
Battcock, Gregory, “Wall Paintings and the Wall,” Arts, December 1971.
1968
Battcock, Gregory, “Four Artists Who Didn’t Show in New York This Season,” Arts, Summer, 1968
Brown, Gordon, “Light: Object and Image,” Arts, Summer, 1968
1967
Battcock, Gregory, “In the Galleries,” Arts Magazine, Summer, 1967
1965
Look Magazine, 1965
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)
USA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Museum Jewish Art, Philadelphia, PA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
The Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
The Phoenix Museum of Art, AZ
The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
The Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, CT
J. B. Speed Museum, Louisville, KY
Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
The Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, NC
The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Oklahoma City Art Museum, OK
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA
The Greenstein Museum, Seattle, WA
Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
Cooperfund Collection, Oak Brook, IL
The Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
The First National Bank of Seattle, Seattle, WA
Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Le Witt Collection, Chester, CT
Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
University Art Museum, the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, VA
Progressive Contemporary Collection, Cleveland, OH
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
The Morgan Literary Museum, New York, NY
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO
Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA
New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
FOREIGN MUSEUMS
British Museum, London, UK
Museum Ludwig Koln, Cologne, Germany
The Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany
Falkenberg Collection, Hamburg, Germany
Kolumba Museum, Cologne, Germany
La Gaia Collection, Brusca, Italy
Musee Moderne, Stockholm, Sweden
Rooseum Center Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden
Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark
The Esbjerg Museum of Modern Art, Esbjerg, Denmark
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Exhibitions
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff | 78,
rue
Julien-Lacroix | F-75020 Paris | T + 33 (0)1 42 03 05 65 | F + 33 (0)1 42 03 05 46 |
www.galeriewolff.com
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Continuum
October 23, 2015 – December 24, 2016
Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France
Press Release:
Continuum represents a seminal installation in the history of photography. The site specific installation lays out the coordinates of temporal impermanence and the immaterial, phenomenological basis of experience. Anastasi explores these issues
by rendering problematic the photograph as instrument of knowledge and objectification. Hung upon each wall of a space,
a series of twelve photographs show the space directly behind the viewer as he or she looks at the photograph. Each wall
reflects the one opposite it; since each photograph was mounted before the next one was taken, the early ones show a
blank wall opposite them; the later ones show on opposing wall with a photograph of the first wall already hung on it. Anastasi metaphorically engages the reflective properties of mirroring by photographically inverting the space, placing the area
behind the viewer in front of him. The viewer entering the gallery space and looking behind himself sees the same thing as in
front of him. Thomas McEvelly a close friend and Anastasi’s devoted art critic, described Continuum as an “infinite regress”,
somewhat like two mirrors facing each other, a space of silence in which the viewer is rendered invisible or immaterial or
transparent.
Anastasi notes in a conversation with McEvelly in 2005 that the work involved with space itself in the 60ies is an allusion to
the discomforting fact that there existed sufficient nuclear weapons sitting in the U.S. and the (former) USSR to essentially
bring human life to an end on this planet – that it might be a bit late for art to continue pointing to this or that corner of reality
as was once its habit – that here and now had taken on a meaning beyond its meaning to past generations. Anastasi’s interest in pure presence which also manifests itself in his signature “works”, his blind drawings is expressed here clearly.
The umbrella under which the early works by Anastasi such as his sound objects, his wall removals and site related installations, all the way up to Autobodyography and Nine Polaroid Photographs of a Mirror bow to is the tautological. These works
can be seen as an attack of representational art while simultaneously expanding a genuflection to the hear and the now.
It seems that Continuum sums up the preoccupations of classical art: the relationship of the context to the thing; the dichotomy between presence and representation, dematerialization and tautology.
Continuum was first presented to the New York galerist Virginia Dwan in 1970, in the form of a drawing by Anastasi dating
from 1968. It was then shown in Anastasi’s third solo show at Dwan Gallery. In 1977 Alanna Heiss presented Continuum
in a slightly modified version at PS1, NY. Galerie Jocelyn Wolff is now presenting this seminal site specific installation in its
original idea of 1968.
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Continuum
October 23, 2015 – December 24, 2016
Communiqué de presse
Continuum est une œuvre-phare dans l’histoire de la photographie. L’installation in situ expose les composantes de
l’éphémérité temporelle ainsi que les bases immatérielles et phénoménologiques de l’expérience. Anastasi explore ces
thèmes en mettant en question la photographie, en tant qu’instrument de connaissance et d’objectification. Accrochée sur
chaque mur de l’espace, une série de douze photos montre l’espace situé directement derrière le spectateur alors qu’il ou
elle regarde la photo. Chaque mur reflète le mur opposé ; puisque chaque photo a été installée avant que la suivante ne
soit prise, les premières montrent le mur vide qui leur fait face et les dernières montrent une photo du premier mur déjà
accrochée sur le mur opposé. Anastasi enclenche métaphoriquement les propriétés réflectives du miroir en inversant photographiquement l’espace, c’est-à-dire en plaçant ce qui est derrière le spectateur devant lui. Le spectateur qui entre dans
l’espace de la galerie et qui regarde derrière lui voit la même chose que celle qui est présentée devant lui. Thomas McEvelly,
ami proche d’Anastasi et critique d’art passionné de son œuvre, a décrit Continuum comme une « régression infinie », un
peu comme deux miroirs disposés face à face, un espace de silence dans lequel le spectateur est rendu invisible, immatériel ou transparent.
Dans une conversation avec McEvelly en 2005, Anastasi faisait remarquer que l’œuvre des années 1960, intimement
liée à l’espace, était une allusion au fait dérangeant qu’il existait suffisamment d’armes nucléaires aux Etats-Unis et dans
l’ancienne URSS pour mettre fin à toute vie humaine sur la planète ; qu’il était peut-être un peu tard pour l’art de continuer
à pointer la réalité sous tel ou tel angle comme il en avait pris l’habitude, et que l’ici et le maintenant avaient pris un sens différent de celui qu’il avait pour les générations précédentes. L’intérêt que porte Anastasi à la présence pure, qui se manifeste
également dans les « œuvres » qui créent son style distinctif, les dessins à l’aveugle, est ici clairement exprimé.
L’égide sous laquelle tout l’œuvre tend à se regrouper est la tautologie : depuis les premières réalisations de l’artiste, tels
les objets sonores, les suppressions de mur et les installations liées au site, jusqu’à l’Autobodyography et les Nine Polaroïd
Photographs of a Mirror. On peut voir ces œuvres comme une attaque de l’art « représentationnel » qui renforce simultanément la prosternation devant l’ici et le maintenant.
Continuum semble résumer les préoccupations de l’art classique : la relation de la chose au contexte ; la dichotomie entre
la présence et la représentation, la dématérialisation et la tautologie.
Continuum a été présenté pour la première fois en 1970 par la galeriste Virginie Dwan à New York, sous la forme d’un dessin d’Anastasi datant de 1968. Il a ensuite été exposé à la troisième exposition personnelle d’Anastasi chez Dwan. En 1977,
Alanna Heiss a présenté Continuum dans une version légèrement modifiée à PS1 à New York. La galerie Jocelyn Wolff
présente aujourd’hui cette œuvre fondatrice in situ dans la conception originelle de 1968.68.
William Anastasi
Continuum; Gelatin silver prints mounted on aluminium, 1968-2015
Exhibition view: Continuum, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Alfred Jarry Archipelago
La valse des pantins - ACTE II
October 18, 2015 - February 14, 2016
La Ferme du Buisson, Centre d’art contemporain, Marne-la-Vallée, France
Curated by Keren Detton & Julie Pellegrin
Press Release:
All most people remember of Jarry is the King Ubu furore, which overshadows a complex body of work marked by radical
experimentation and an unmannerly blending of genres. In bringing together a remarkable group of one-of-a-kind international artists, Alfred Jarry Archipelago demonstrates that an entire register of current art and performance is shot through with
potent, «Jarryesque» transgression.
«Because this boy – who wore size 36 shoes and who, brokenhearted, went to his friend Mallarmé’s funeral wearing a
lemon yellow pair stolen from his lady friend Rachilde; who, when he was born at the age of 15, was already the child he
would be when he died at 34; who knew at once that «To live = To cease to exist»; who spent his life yo-yoing at up to 300
km/h between the lands of «shitr» and the absolute; who left behind wonders that would knock you flat; who staked his
entire existence on literature and played with a revolver, claiming that it was «as beautiful as literature» – completely escapes
the clutches of literature.» Annie Le Brun“
In his poetry, plays and drawings Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) shattered the boundaries of the social, moral and aesthetic order
of the late 19th century. Like a thunderclap, his King Ubu’s famed «Shitr!» paved the way for for the modernity that was
waiting in the wings: from Marcel Duchamp to Harald Szeemann, and including the Futurists, the Surrealists, the Conceptuals and all the many others indebted to this «proto- Dadaist». Between the turn of one century and that of its successor
Jarry’s work and ideas seem to have breathed new life into society and art. The abolition of limits – to disciplines, identity,
good sense, good taste – that he explored in his life and his work, led him to a totally new approach to drama, the body
and language; as well as issues of domination, whether related to desire, knowledge or power. Homing in a selection of
Jarryesque motifs, Alfred Jarry Archipelago sets out to pinpoint their reappearance in the visual arts, on the cusp of theatre,
dance and literature. In his celebrated ‘pataphysical manifesto Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, Pataphysician’ Jarry
describes an initiatory island-hopping voyage that abolishes factual geography in favour of its artistic equivalent. Each chapter of Book 3 recounts a landfall on an imaginary island dedicated to a writer or artist of the time. If he were sailing through
today’s world, what kind of landscape of the last century would Jarry orchestrate? In the same spirit Alfred Jarry Archipelago
invites him along as a posthumous curator: for a string of islands embodying the works of various artists and sketching an
uncompromisingly subjective view of his heritage. Unfolding over several months, in different places and in different shapes
and forms – group and solo exhibitions, screenings, performances, encounters – the project will be rounded off with a major
catalogue.
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Alfred Jarry Archipelago
La valse des pantins - ACTE II
October 18, 2015 - February 14, 2016
La Ferme du Buisson, Centre d’art contemporain, Marne-la-Vallée, France
Commissariat de Keren Detton & Julie Pellegrin
Communiqué» de presse
De Jarry on ne retient que le scandale d’Ubu Roi qui masque une oeuvre complexe placée sous le signe de l’expérimentation radicale et le mélange des (mauvais) genres. En réunissant un ensemble exceptionnel d’artistes internationaux, Alfred
Jarry Archipelago démontre que tout un pan de l’art et de la performance actuels est traversé par cette puissance de
transgression « jarryesque ».
« Parce que ce garçon-là, qui chaussait du 36 et qui volait les souliers en cuir jaune canard de son amie Rachilde pour
assister, bouleversé, à l’enterrement de son ami Mallarmé ; qui lors de sa naissance à 15 ans est déjà l’enfant qu’il sera à sa
mort à 34 ans ; qui sait tout de suite que « Vivre = cesser d’Exister » et qui passa sa vie en aller et retour entre les contrées
de la « merdre » et de l’absolu avec des pointes à plus de 300 km/heure et des splendeurs à vous plaquer au sol ; parce
que Alfred Jarry, qui joua son existence entière sur la littérature et qui jouait du revolver sous prétexte que « c’est beau
comme littérature », échappe complètement à la littérature. » Annie Le Brun
Poète, dramaturge et dessinateur, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) a pulvérisé les frontières de l’ordre social, moral et esthétique
du XIXe siècle finissant. Retentissant comme un coup de tonnerre, le célèbre « Merdre ! » de son Ubu Roi ouvre la voie aux
développements de la modernité à venir - de Marcel Duchamp à Harald Szeemann en passant par les futuristes, les surréalistes, les conceptuels, tous sont redevables de celui qui sera qualifié de « proto-dadaïste ». D’un tournant de siècle à l’autre,
l’oeuvre et les idées de Jarry semblent irriguer de nouveau la société et l’art contemporains. L’abolition des limites (des
disciplines, de l’identité, du bon sens et du bon goût) explorée autant dans sa vie que dans ses écrits l’ont conduit à une
approche inédite de la théâtralité et du langage, du récit absurde, de l’abject, de la relation corps/machine, du désir comme
producteur de formes, des rapports de domination, qu’ils soient liés au pouvoir ou au savoir. Identifiant un certain nombre
de motifs « jarryesques », Alfred Jarry Archipelago se présente comme une quête spéculative de leurs résurgences dans les
arts visuels, à la lisière du politique, du théâtre, de la danse et de la littérature. Dans son célèbre roman, Gestes et Opinions
du Docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien, Alfred Jarry décrit un voyage initiatique d’île en île dans lequel une géographie artistique
se substitue à la géographie réelle. Chaque chapitre du livre III correspond à une halte dans une île fictive dédiée à un écrivain ou un peintre de son temps. S’il naviguait dans le monde actuel, quel paysage composerait l’auteur et critique du siècle
dernier ? Convoquant la figure de Jarry comme commissaire posthume, « Alfred Jarry Archipelago » se compose d’un
chapelet d’îlots matérialisant l’univers de divers artistes pour esquisser une vision résolument subjective de son héritage.
Le projet se déploie sur plusieurs mois dans plusieurs lieux et différents formats - expositions collectives, monographiques,
projections, performances, rencontres – et se conclura par une importante publication.
William Anastasi
Du Jarry, 1991-94, facsimile of the manuscript, about 950 pages
Exhibition view: Alfred Jarry Archipelago, La Ferme du Buisson, Marne-la-Vallée, France
William Anastasi
Du Jarry, 1991-94, facsimile of the manuscript, about 950 pages
William Anastasi
Sound Object, (Deflacted Tired), inner tube, speakers, recording, 1964/2015
William Anastasi
Badabad (nn), oil, crayon, graphite on canvas, 226 x 187 cm, 2013
Badabad (o), oil, crayon, graphite on canvas, 226 x 187 cm, 2014
William Anastasi
Badabad (o), oil, crayon, graphite on canvas, 226 x 187 cm, 2014
William Anastasi
Badabad (nn), oil, crayon, graphite on canvas, 226 x 187 cm, 2013
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Théâtre des opérations / Theatre of operations
January 22-24, 2015
Théâtre de l’usine, Genèva, Switzerland
By Bénédicte le Pimpec & Émile Ouroumov in collaboration with Céline Bertin
Press Release:
In science and engineering, a black box is a device, system or object which can be viewed in terms of its input and out-put
without any knowledge of its internal workings. Its implementation is «opaque» (black). Almost anything might be referred
to as a black box: a transistor, an algorithm, or the human brain.The opposite of a black box is a system where the in-ner
components or logic are available for inspection, which is most commonly referred to as a white box.Source: WikipediaA
“theatre of operations” is a delimited geographical zone in which an armed conflict involving at least two adversaries is
taking place. The related term “operating theatre” also describes the historical practice of surgery performed as a public
spectacle.This project incorporates “operations” – artistic gestures of addition, subtraction, multiplication and differentiation
– in the present, and not in an immutable conception of time. Over a three-day period, these operations are being deployed
in the form of an exhibition punctuated by activa-tions, inside and outside the “black box”, in an ongoing flow, and with
parallel temporalities. The objects, films, readings, interventions and exhibitions arrange their own mediation tools within
the theatrical model. Coming from the vocabulary of art, by way of a productive tension they negotiate the hierarchy of the
elements of the theatrical edifice, over-exposing to better deconstruct the conflict between actor and spectator, and bringing
forth common areas of sensibility between live spectacle and visual art.The interactions of the theatre with the other arts
and the social space roundabout can be traced back to Antiquity. But prior to recent attempts at deconstruction, the idea
whereby the theatre was the loftiest expression of any society encouraged the application of the notion of “total artwork”, a
construct envisaging the arts participating in a pyramidal and compartmental-ized way. This development is akin to capitalist
accumulation: in the depths of the Middle Ages, perhaps earlier, with the decline of Rome and Judaeo-Christianity, Western
society chose to accumulate rather than live. At the outset, the political nature of the stage space was more an emanation of the state apparatus – undoubtedly, there is a politics of space because space is po-litical – rather than a liberating
implementation of the idea that it is by means of the body that space is perceived, lived – and produced (Henri Lefebvre).In
a chronology that is subjective and incomplete, the imagination of the “Theatre of Operations” retains some dates. 1924, the
ballet Relâche by Francis Picabia, Eric Satie and René Clair, at once transversal and undisciplined. 1970, Yvonne Rainer’s
WAR, a dance against the Vietnam war in which the movements are led by the vocabulary of military strategy. 1982, Fitzcarraldo, “con-quistador of the useless” from Werner Herzog’s film of the same title, de-territorializes opera machinery in a boat
in Amazonia. 2006, the pioneering exhibition The Living Currency by Pierre Bal-Blanc positions the issue of the body back at
the centre of the curatorial economy. 2007, Il Tempo del Postino (Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno) attempts a spectacular transposition of artistic codes in the opera. 2012, with her Artificial Hells, Claire Bishop proposes a critical reading
of “participatory art and the politics of spectatorship”.Informed by these endeavours, the “Theatre of Operations” pursues
an investigation of the place of the spectacle. Guy Debord’s Nouveau Théâtre des opérations dans la culture puts forward
the notion that the dissolution of old ideas goes hand in hand with the dissolution of old conditions of existence. Rather
than seeing the theatre as the place of a spatial, temporal and corporal capitalization, the exhibition’s intent is to compose
a theatre that is inhab-ited, active, plastic and empirical, at opposite ends of the psychological notion of “learned helplessness”, a behaviour in which the subject perceives absence of control over the events in his environment, and subsequently
adopts a resigned or passive attitude.
Communiqué de presse:
Dans la science et l’ingénierie, une boîte noire est un système ou objet qui peut être appréhendé uniquement sous l’angle
de ses interactions d’entrée ou sortie, sans connaître son fonction-nement interne. Sa mise en oeuvre est « opaque » (noire).
Tout peut être représenté sous forme d’une boîte noire : un transistor, un algorithme ou le cerveau humain.Le contraire
d’une boîte noire, dit boîte blanche, est un système dont les mécanismes sont visibles et permettent d’en comprendre le
fonctionnement. Source : WikipédiaLe « théâtre des opérations » est une zone géo-graphique délimitée où se déroule un
conflit armé impliquant au moins deux adversaires. Le terme pointe aussi la pratique historique de la chirurgie performée en
tant que spectacle public. Ce projet inscrit les « opérations », gestes artis-tiques de l’addition, soustraction, multiplication ou
différenciation, dans le présent et non dans un temps immuable. Pendant trois jours, ces opérations sont déployées sous
la forme d’une exposition ponctuée par des activations, à l’inté-rieur ou à l’extérieur de la « black box », en flux continu et
avec des temporalités parallèles. Les objets, films, lectures, interventions et exposi-tions agencent leurs propres outils de
médiation au sein du modèle théâtral. Issus du vocabulaire de l’art, ils négocient par une tension productive la hiérarchie
des éléments de l’édifice théâtral, surexposant pour mieux déconstruire le conflit entre acteur et spectateur, faisant émerger
des zones de sensibilité communes entre spectacle vivant et art plastique.Les interactions du théâtre avec les autres arts et
l’espace social environnant peuvent être retracées dès l’Antiquité. Toutefois, avant les tentatives récentes de déconstruction,
l’idée selon laquelle le théâtre était l’expression la plus haute de toute société a pu favoriser l’implémentation de la notion d’«
oeuvre d’art totale », construction envisageant les arts participants de manière pyramidale et cloisonnée. Ce développement
se rapproche de l’accumulation capitaliste : dans les profondeurs médiévales, peut-être auparavant avec le déclin de Rome
et le judéo-christianisme, la société occidentale a choisi d’accumuler au lieu de vivre. Le caractère politique de l’espace
scénique était à l’origine davantage une émanation de l’appareil étatique – assurément, il y a une politique de l’espace parce
que l’espace est politique – plutôt qu’une mise en pratique libératrice de l’idée que c’est à partir du corps que se perçoit et
que se vit l’espace, et qu’il se produit (Henri Lefebvre).En une chronologie lacunaire et subjective, l’ima-ginaire du « Théâtre
des opérations » retient quelques dates. 1924, le ballet Relâche de Francis Picabia, Erik Satie et René Clair, transversal
et indisciplinaire. 1970, WAR d’Yvonne Rainer, une chorégraphie contre la Guerre du Vietnam où les mouvements sont
conduits par le vocabulaire de la stratégie militaire. 1982, Fitzcarraldo, « conquistador de l’inutile » du film épo-nyme de
Werner Herzog, déterritorialise la machinerie de l’opéra sur un bateau en Amazonie. 2006, l’exposition pionnière La Monnaie
Vivante de Pierre Bal-Blanc replace la question du corps au centre de l’économie curatoriale. 2007, Il Tempo del Postino
(Hans Ulrich Obrist et Philippe Parreno) tente une transposition spectacu-laire des codes artistiques à l’opéra. 2012, Claire
Bishop propose avec Artificial Hells une lecture critique de l’« art participatif et des politiques du spectateur ».Informé par
ces entreprises, le « Théâtre des opérations » poursuit une investigation du lieu du spectacle. Le Nouveau Théâtre des
opérations dans la culture de Guy Debord avance que la dissolution des idées anciennes va de pair avec la dissolution des
anciennes conditions d’existence. Plutôt que d’envisager le théâtre comme le lieu d’une capitalisation foncière, temporelle
et cor-porelle, l’exposition entend composer un théâtre habité, actif, plastique et empirique, aux antipodes de la notion d’«
impuissance apprise », état psy-chologique dans lequel le sujet fait l’expérience de son absence de contrôle sur les événements survenant dans son environnement, favorisant l’adoption d’une attitude résignée ou passive
You Are (Three Evenings from William Anastasi)
1977/8
In 1977, You Are: John Cage, One of Three Narrators on Three Successive Evenings, 8–9:30 PM, in which a writer, a
visual artist, and a composer were asked to describe the viewers coming to Anastasi’s exhibition at the Cloc tower,
New York. Anastasi chose Cage as the composer (the writer being Carl Kielblock, and the artist, Les Levine). In response Cage asked whether he could sit facing away from those gathered and describe the sounds instead. His observations were taken down verbatim by a court stenographer, and then a speed typist’s phonetic transcript (containing
errors) was mounted on the wall every couple minutes. The collaboration initiated Anastasi and Cage’s friendship. This
led to daily chess games over the next fifteen years until Cage’s death.
Representations:
You Are (Three Evenings from William Anastasi), narrated by Les Levine, Carl Keilblock, John
Cage, The Clocktower, New York, NY, 1978
You Are (Three Evenings from William Anastasi), narrated by William Anastasi, The Visual Arts
Museum,
New York, NY, 1978
You Are narrated by William Anastasi and Francesca Allenovi (Italian), Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
Palachi dei Congressi, Bologna, Italy, 1978
William Anastasi
You Are (Three Evenings from William Anastasi), 1977/8
William Anastasi
Exhibition view: Théâtre des opérations, Théâtre de l’usine, Geneva, Switzerland, 2015,
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
William Anastasi
1977/8
William Anastasi
1977/8
William Anastasi
Exhibition view: Théâtre des opérations, Théâtre de l’usine, Geneva, Switzerland,
2015,
William Anastasi
Drawings by William Anastasi
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Passion
William Anastasi - Francisco Tropa
- Christoph Weber
April 10 – May 23, 2015
Centered around Passion by William Anastasi, this exhibition offers many lines of thought for themes specific to conceptuel
sculpture and drawing: tautology as process at the origin of the work, the perspective, the relationship to materials, accidents and chance.
Working without leaving the «aesthetic prejudice of the moment», be it trying to free oneself from one’s own cultural references via an objectivation process is at the heart of William Anastasi’s practice. The origin of a serigraphy, Real Life, 2000,
pencil on paper, 42.5 x 51.5 cm, was re-worked by the artist with pencil and felt pen using his two hands and a set of dice
to intervene with one or the other color.
This effort for objectivation also lies at the heart of the series of works produced for the exhibition «Six Sites» at the Dwan
Gallery in 1967 to which Passion belongs: the photographic print of the space with a scaffold/table is a 10% reduction of the
place it is situated, a simple and precise protocol that calls for a redefining of the work each time it is presented in a different
context. William Anastasi’s work builds itself upon multiple processes, plays with enlargement and reduction, and utilizes
text and language.
With Antipodes, 2015, white Estremoz marble, Francisco Tropa fixes an axel and two rails into the marble, metaphor for displacement on two continuous parallel lines; here the traditional sculpture material is that involving the ceasing of movement.
The two sculptures, Not yet titled, 2015, steel and concrete, 18.5 x 130 x 60 cm and Not Yet Titled, 2015, concrete, 120 x
44 x 22.5 cm proceed from Christoph Weber’s systematic research on this material’s reaction to folding to the point of breaking, and as a ceasing of movement that is characteristic of the life of the material before it stiffens like a homologon of rock.
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Passion
William Anastasi - Francisco Tropa
- Christoph Weber
April 10 – May 23, 2015
Articulée autour de Passion de William Anastasi, cette exposition offre plusieurs axes de réflexion autour de thèmes propres
à la sculpture et au dessin conceptuels : la tautologie comme process à l’origine de l’oeuvre, la perspective, la relation au
matériau et l’accident, le hasard.
Travailler sans laisser opérer «le préjudice esthétique du moment», soit essayer de s’affranchir de ses propres références
culturelles par un procédé d’objectivation, est au coeur de la pratique de William Anastasi. Real Life (2000, crayon à papier
sur papier, 42,5 x 51,5 cm), à l’origine une sérigraphie, a été retravaillée par l’artiste au crayon et au feutre, utilisant ses deux
mains et le jeu de dés pour intervenir avec l’une ou l’autre couleur.
Cet effort d’objectivation se trouve également au coeur de la série d’oeuvres produites pour l’exposition Six Sites à la Dwan
Gallery en 1967 à laquelle Passion appartient : l’impression photographique de l’espace où est placé un échafaudage/table
de travail est une réduction de 10% de l’endroit où elle est située, protocole précis et simple, qui appelle à une redéfinition
de l’oeuvre chaque fois qu’elle est présentée dans un contexte différent. L’oeuvre de William Anastasi se construit ainsi
autour de multiples procédés, jeux d’agrandissement et de réduction, utilisation du texte et du langage.
Avec Antipode (2015, marbre blanc Estremoz), Francisco Tropa fige dans le marbre un essieu ferroviaire et deux rails, métaphore du déplacement sur deux lignes parallèles continues; ici le matériau traditionnel de la sculpture est celui de l’arrêt du
mouvement.
Les deux sculptures de Christoph Weber (Not yet titled, 2015, acier et béton, 18,5 x 130 x 60 cm, et Not Yet Titled, 2015,
béton, 120 x 44 x 22,5 cm) procèdent de l’exploration systématique de ce matériau dans sa réaction à la pliure, au point de
rupture, et comme arrêt d’un mouvement qui est lié à la vie propre du matériau, avant qu’il ne se fige, comme un homologon de la pierre.
William Anastasi
Passion
1967
Photomural, scaffold and pine plank
Dimensions variable,(protocol)
Photomural : 152,5 x 365,8 cm
Scaffold and pine plank : 91,4 x 426,7 x 61 cm
Exhibition view: Passion, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, 2015
William Anastasi
Passion
1967
William Anastasi
Without Title
1995
aluminium engraving
27 x 30.5 cm
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Dans ma cellule, une silhouette
February 1st – April 20, 2014
Centre d’art contemporain de la Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France
« Il y a dans ma cellule la trace d’un homme mort. […] Cela fait presque cinq ans qu’il est enterré, pourtant son ombre
perdure. Il n’était rien ni personne. Tout ce qui reste de lui c’est une poignée d’accusations pour viol et un dessin exécuté au crayon. Ce n’est peut-être qu’une superstition mais je ne peux m’empêcher de penser que l’effacer reviendrait
à effacer jusqu’à son existence. Ce qui ne serait peut-être pas une mauvaise chose finalement, mais ce n’est pas moi
qui m’en chargerai. » Extrait de Life After Death, une autobiographie de Damien Echols, condamné à mort par l’État
d’Arkansas en 1994 et relaxé en 2011
Proposant une exploration du dessin dans son rapport au geste, au corps, l’exposition revient sur l’histoire de Dibutade,
la fille du potier de Sycione, qui, la veille du départ de son amant, « entoura d’une ligne l’ombre de son visage projetée
sur le mur par la lumière d’une lanterne. » Si ce geste séminal que relate Pline l’Ancien dans son Histoire naturelle est
considéré par l’auteur, et à sa suite par nombre d’historiens de l’art, comme l’origine de la peinture et de la sculpture,
elle est aussi une invitation à renouveler notre rapport au visible. Par son geste, la jeune fille nous renvoie en effet à la
part d’invisible que recèle le visible, en l’occurrence à son désir qui ne peut se résoudre dans l’image. Ce que nous
voyons est ainsi toujours habité par l’absence de ce que nous ne pouvons voir, absence qui non seulement structure
notre vision mais permet l’avènement d’une potentialité, d’un événement, d’un dévoilement. Réunissant une sélection
d’oeuvres de Abdelkader Benchamma, Mathieu Bonardet, Geta Brătescu, Maryclare Foá & Birgitta Hosea (Performance
Drawing Collective), Jean Genet, Dennis Oppenheim, Santiago Reyes, Till Roeskens et Carla Zaccagnini, l’exposition
envisage ainsi la relation du dessin au corps, où le corps n’est pas seulement ce qui génère le mouvement mais
révèle avant tout ce qui se soustrait au regard et que l’on cherche pourtant à rendre visible de notre rapport à l’autre et
de notre rapport à soi.
William Anastasi
Blind drawings
Exhibition views: Dans ma cellule, une silhouette, Centre d’art contemporain de la Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, France
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Sound works 1963-2013
October 4 - November 30, 2013
Hunter college, New York, USA
Sound Works examines the importance of sound in the work of William Anastasi (b. 1933), one of the key figures in the
development of Conceptual, Process, and Minimal Art. Since the early 1960s, sound has played a central role in Anastasi’s relentless investigations into the status, autonomy, and representational function of the art object. Bringing together
works from 1963 to the present, Sound Works marks the first comprehensive exhibition to focus exclusively on William
Anastasi’s varied use of and engagement with sound. By showcasing sound as a consistent thread in his pioneering
efforts to question aesthetic norms, this exhibition provides a unique lens through which to consider Anastasi’s artistic
innovations and contributes to the ongoing critical reappraisal of his oeuvre.
This ensemble of objects and drawings explores the complex relationship between sound and image, and yields a range
of conceptual and phenomenological tensions: between active and passive, presence and absence, creation and destruction. In so doing, Anastasi raises important questions about site and medium specificity, the dematerialization of the
aesthetic object, and the dynamic nature of sense experience and perception. Cumulatively, Sound Works offers visitors
an unprecedented opportunity to consider both the importance of sound to Anastasi’s broader artistic practice as well
as Anastasi’s significance to the emerging art movements of the 1960s and beyond.
William Anastasi: Sound Works, 1963–2013 opens at a pivotal moment in the artist’s career—in the year of his eightieth
birthday—and coincides with a resurgence of interest in sound-based art. This unique timing opens the door for critical
discussion of the development of sound art and Anastasi’s pivotal role in its history.
Exhibition view: Sound works 1963-2013, Hunter College, New York, 2013
William Anastasi.
The World’s Greatest Music,
1977.
Three children’s record players, three seventy-eight-rpm records, 6 x 38 x 10
in. Collection of Alanna Heiss and Fredrick Sherman
William Anastasi.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony,
1965
.Magnetic tape, nails, approx. 80 x 71
in. Collection of Tony Ganz
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes
May 22 - July 20, 2013
Beton Salon, Paris, France
group show curated by Melanie Bouteloup
En 2003, l’Unesco établissait une Convention pour la sauvegarde du Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel, offrant une reconnaissance institutionnelle inédite à des pratiques de l’ordre du savoir-faire, de l’oralité, du geste ou du rituel. Selon cette
convention, la notion de « patrimoine culturel immatériel » désigne les « pratiques, représentations, expressions, connaissances et savoir-faire - ainsi que les instruments, objets, artefacts et espaces culturels qui leur sont associés » - transmis
de génération en génération par une communauté. Il est en permanence recréé en fonction de l’interaction du groupe
avec son milieu, son histoire, et lui procure « un sentiment d’identité et de continuité, contribuant ainsi à promouvoir le
respect de la diversité culturelle et la créativité humaine ». Cette convention témoigne d’une évolution du concept de «
patrimoine » vers une définition élargie, non plus strictement monumentaliste et occidentale. En dehors du bâti et des
textes, elle inclut désormais l’oralité et les gestes pour reconnaître la diversité des formes d’expressions culturelles à travers le monde. L’ambition d’en assurer la préservation pose cependant question. Comment envisager la représentation
de pratiques immatérielles ? Comment entreprendre leur « sauvegarde » sans pour autant les figer en un inventaire, et les
réduire à une transcription ou réactivation nécessairement partielle et subjective ? Faut-il en définitive « conserver » ces
pratiques immatérielles ou laisser libre cours à leurs mutations ?
À l’occasion des 10 ans de cette convention, l’exposition « Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes »
propose d’interroger les enjeux soulevés par la patrimonialisation de données culturelles par définition vivantes et en perpétuelle évolution. Tenter de classer et perpétuer les pratiques culturelles immatérielles, n’est-ce pas aller à l’encontre du
mouvement organique qui les sous-tend, propre à la constitution, à l’évolution voire à la disparition des formes d’expression d’une communauté humaine ? Dans la mesure où les pratiques d’un groupe naissent et se métamorphosent
toujours en fonction d’un contexte socio-économique précis, leur fixation en une forme atemporelle supposée représentative (au moyen d’enregistrements sonores, photographiques, vidéos, mais encore de témoignages ou d’éléments
collectés sur le terrain) ne peut rendre compte de leurs variations et de leur labilité profonde.
William Anastasi
Without Title (One Gallon of industrial high-gloss enamel, poured), 1966, site specific installation, variable size
Microphone, 1963-2011
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes, bétonsalon, Paris, 2013
William Anastasi
Without Title (One Gallon of industrial high-gloss enamel, poured)
1966
site specific installation, variable size
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes, bétonsalon, Paris,
2013
William Anastasi
Without Title (One Gallon of industrial high-gloss enamel, poured) detail
1966
site specific installation, variable size
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes, bétonsalon, Paris,
2013
William Anastasi
Microphone
1963-2011
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes,
bétonsalon, Paris, 2013
William Anastasi, Coleslaw, Let’s do it From this Moment on, 2003, video on DVD, color, sound, 61 min
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes, bétonsalon, Paris, 2013
WILLIAM ANASTASI
JARRY: DU / JOY
BLIND DRAWINGS
WALKING, SUBWAY, DROP, VETRUVIAN MAN,
STILL
November 10 – December 22, 2012
Press release:
At the occasion of his first solo exhibition at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, William Anastasi presents a series of «Blind
Drawings», some of them produced in situ. One relief, «Displaced Site» (1966) and a sculpture «1904 S.Ninth St. (1964)
along with archives, notes and drawings related to his delving into Jarry’s effect on Duchamp and Joyce. One can
observe how the division between artworks and archives are permeable.
For William Anastasi the starting point is the idea. His ideas typically arrive with a curiosity regarding their realization. His
practice merges with the quotidien. After initiating his “Running drawings”, series in the 60’s, he builds a corpus where
drawings accompany his motion (“Walking Drawings”, “Subway drawings”, “Taxi Cab Drawings”, etc.), or organizing a
system embracing space for chance (“Drop Drawings”), in coherence with his ethics of the aleatory.
Pour sa première exposition personnelle à la galerie, William Anastasi articule un ensemble de “Blind drawings”, dont
certains réalisés in situ, deux sculptures «Displaced Site» (1966) et «1904 S.Ninth St.» (1964) et un ensemble de notes
et archives lié à ses recherches sur l’influence de l’oeuvre d’Alfred Jarry chez Joyce et chez Duchamp, où les frontières
entre œuvre et document se dissipent.
Pour William Anastasi, il s’agit toujours d’avoir une idée et de voir ensuite ce que cela produit, transcrit dans la réalité
d’un passage à l’acte (avec comme leitmotiv : “I have an idea and want to see how it looks like”).
La pratique de William Anastasi s’inscrit dans son quotidien; à la suite de la série des « Running drawings », initiée dans
les années 60, se construit un corpus où le dessin apparaît accompagnant ses mouvements et déplacement (« Subway
drawings », « Taxi cab drawings » etc.), ou en mettant en place un système libérant un espace au hasard (« Drop
Drawings ») en cohérence avec son éthique de l’aléatoire.
Exhibition view: Jarry: Du/Joy, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
William Anastasi
Without Title (One hour blind drawing)
Burst drawing
2012, oil pastel on paper, 150 x 182 cm
Displaced Site
1966, cardboard, plaster, 6 x 9 x 11 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (Half hour blind drawing)
2012, graphite on paper, 150.5 x 181 cm
1904 S.Ninth St.
1964, bricks, 12.3 x 22.2 x 22 cm
William Anastasi
Still drawing x 3
2011
graphite on paper
76.5 x 57 cm
William Anastasi
Still drawing
2011
graphite on paper
76.5 x 57 cm
William Anastasi
Drop drawing
2012
graphite and incision on paper
57 x 76.5 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (One hour blind drawing)
2012
pencil on paper
150 x 274.3 cm
William Anastasi
Making of Without Title (One hour blind drawing)
2012
pencil on paper
150 x 274.3 cm
WILLIAM ANASTASI
Works
Site Specific Installations
Untitled
1966
photograph behind glass, framed
131 x 162 cm
Installation view: Coincidents, Kunstmuseum
Dusseldorf, 1979
Main Gallery, South Wall from Six Sites
1967
Photo silkscreen on canvas
217 x 842 cm
Exhibition view with the artist at Dawn Gallery, New York
Main Gallery, West Wall from Six Sites
1967
Photo silkscreen on canvas
217 x 400 cm
Exhibition view at Dawn Gallery, New York
Untitled
1968-69
Photograph mounted on aluminium
121 x 165 cm
Exhibition view: ,Scott Hanson Gallery
Continuum
1970
Gelatin silver prints mounted on aluminium
152,4 x 122 cm each
Exhibition view at Dawn Gallery, New York
Passion
1967
photomural
152,4 x 365,8 cm
scaffold and pine plank
91,4 x 246,7 x 61 cm
Exhibition view at Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund, Sweden
Passion
1967
Exhibition view: Passion, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France, 2015
Without title, (One Gallon of industrial high-gloss enamel, poured),
1966
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes, Beton Salon, Paris 2013
Without title, (One Gallon of industrial high-gloss enamel, poured),
1966
READING A LINE ON A WALL
1967
Press type
10 x 210 cm
Sound Objects
W I L L I A M A N A S T A S I: S O U N D 1 9 6 3 — 2 0 1 3 Exhibition organized by Dove Bradshaw William Anastasi is not a typical art-‐lover—he says he does not have a strong visual memory. Getting off a highway, or leaving a new hotel he tells of difficulty finding his way back. He seems to reserve his gaze for reading people or interior thoughts. This is rare for an artist. Instead he is a music lover. At sixteen, before the Salk vaccine, he was struck with Polio in his right shoulder. Quarantined at home for the better part of a year, he was given home schooling, but the discovery of classical music helped save him. His Father brought home a 3-‐speed record player and responded to an early promotion of free long-‐playing recordings of the world’s great composers. This experience, no doubt, was the crucible that contributed to the making of the artist. Anastasi attends many live concerts, including regular Sunday Evensong at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in his/our neighborhood—we have lived together since 1974. At these choral concerts he walks the block-‐long corridor of the building while executing Walking Drawings, one of which is shown here. Or in the case of the Concert Drawing here, last fall, he was seated next to Virginia Dwan and me during an evening of John Cage’s music at Carnegie Hall. Afterwards he gave the drawing to Ms. Dwan who had mounted four important exhibitions at the Dwan Gallery in New York from 1966-‐1970. In 1965 through the gallery he met Cage. Anastasi has always maintained close friendships with composers, Cage being the most notable. By contrast most of Cage’s deepest friendships were with artists. In this respect their bonds were mirror opposites. Cage was not drawn to the history of music, and was extremely selective about contemporary music. His was a specific focus. Anastasi’s connection to visual art is similar. Again Anastasi’s omnivorous love of music and Cage’s devotion to art are mirrored. This seeming distance from their chosen vocations provoked these two iconoclasts to become revolutionaries. Sound Works 1963-2013 spans Anastasi forays into sound beginning with one of his earliest works—Microphone, 1963 and ending with an in-‐situ sound/drawing from the Resignation Series, 1989/2013 made for this exhibition. In the past Anastasi has had five significant exhibitions solely devoted to sound made in sculpture, drawing or for theater from which these works were taken. The earliest works from 1963-‐
1965 exhibited in his 1966, Sound Objects, at the Dwan Gallery, New York. He coined the appellation Sound Objects, which has become vernacular. In 1977, You Are: John Cage: one of three narrators on three successive evenings, 8-‐9:30 PM followed at the Clocktower, New York. Anastasi invited Cage to describe the audience. Cage asked whether he could sit facing away and describe the sounds instead. His observations were taken down verbatim by a court stenographer, then a speed typist’s transcript was mounted on the wall every couple of minutes. The collaboration initiated their Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
friendship. This led to daily chess games over the next fifteen years until Cage’s death. Again in 1977, Microphone, exhibited in it’s own space at PS1, Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York. In 1993, Drawing Sounds: A Memorial in Honor of John Cage, was presented at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Anastasi invited fifteen friends of John’s to record the sound made while drawing on paper mounted onto a clipboard. The tape recorder, clipped to the board, repeated the sounds for viewers. Shown here are Merce Cunningham’s, Jasper John’s and Anastasi’s drawings. Finally in 1998, Mural Drawings with the Sound of their Making, premièred at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, with the artist and three students each executing a stationary Vetruvian Man mural. Transducers attached to each wall recalled the sound of the making of each drawing (one is displayed in the window). The Hunter exhibition presents a selection of works taken from each these exhibitions, along with some of the earliest examples inspired by sound, but not shown as a body. Among them, are the first presentation of 4 of 96 Constellation Drawings, 1963, done while listening to Wanda Landowska’s recording of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. Other drawings include two Concert Drawings, 2009 (the Bach concert) and 2012 (the Carnegie Hall evening of Cage) and a Dance/Concert Drawing, 2004 made viewing a Merce Cunningham performance. Sculptures include Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, 1965, a wall-‐relief using a recording tape of that piece, and World’s Greatest Music, 1977: three manual record players randomly playing on and off the end-‐grooves of three-‐78 rpm records labeled World’s Greatest Music. Galerie Jocelyn Wolff
William Anastasi
Sound Objects
1966
Installation view
Exhibition view: Dawn Gallery, New York
Sound Object
Deflated Tire
1964-2013
Inner tube, speaker, recording
Sound Object
Drill
1964-2013
Sound Object
Fann
1964-2013
Fan, speaker, recording
Sound Object
Radiator
1964-2013
Heater, speakers, recording
William Anastasi
Microphone
1963
Microphone, sound
William Anastasi
Microphone
1963-2011
Exhibition view: Quelque chose de plus qu’une succession de notes, bétonsalon,
Paris, 2013
Photographs
Nine Polaroid Photographs of a Mirror
1967
polaroid photographs and mirror
50 x 32 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
William Anastasi
Diptych (Grass)
1967
polaroid photographs
11 x 18 cm
Diptych (Hands)
1967
polaroid photographs
10 x 16,5 cm
William Anastasi
Maintenance III
1968
photogravure
38 x 47 cm
William Anastasi
Untitled
1967
black and white polaroid photographs
and masking tape
William Anastasi
Without Title (Rust)
1977
Polaroids
26 x 30 cm
William Anastasi
Four one to one photographs of a papered wall at the Bradshaw residence, 436 E. 88th St, NYC, Jan 27, 1977
1977
Polaroids
21,5 x 28 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (Roof)
1977
Polaroids
31 x 28 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (Beach)
1977
Polaroids
33 x 35,5 cm
Drawings on canvas
William Anastasi
Breath
1997
Oil, graphite on canvas
256 x 198 x 5 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (painting of the word Jew)
2013
Oilstick on canvas
228 x 187 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (THIS JEW)
1998
Coloured ink on canvas
30,5 x 30,5 cm
William Anastasi
Without Title (Abandoned Painting)
The Abandoned Painting is part of the William Anastasi’s ongoing practice of unsighted
drawings incorporating chance and a set of rules into the artistic process.
In 1995 Anastasi began the series Abandoned, titled after de Kooning’s notion of “never
finishing a painting but rather abandoning it”. The all-black, large-scale painting reflects the
artist’s body in its full dimensions, as far as his arms could reach in a Vitruvian stretch. The
ground is painted black, and the formless figures are a result of drawing blindly in oil and graphite on the surface.
Anastasi refers to the Abandoned Painting as a silent movie – combining sighted and unsighted gestures whose placement is determined by the throw of dice. He forgoes his recipe
for closure (when the oil stick runs out, when the allotted time is up) and decides when, as de
Kooning would say, to abandon the painting. This final, sighted intervention contradicts the
exacting set of controls that has framed Anastasi’s work for many years.
Anastasi believes in chance and in the silent world of meditation. He also loves to play chess
and sees this game as a metaphor for life and a struggle for life. A chess player’s virtues are
reason, memory and invention – the virtues of a thinking man.
William Anastasi
Abandoned painting
2000
oil and graphite on canvas
224 x 187,5 cm
William Anastasi
Abandoned painting
2000
oil and graphite on canvas
224 x 187,5 cm
William Anastasi
The Bababad Paintings”
The Bababab series is inspired by the longest word in James Joyce’s novel, Finnegans Wake,
as the preeminent New York-based artist William Anastasi explains, Joyce’s “frightening beast”
of an experimental novel. Like many admirers of the book, it has held an enduring fascination
for Anastasi and it has found its way into the soul of Anastasi’s work and literally onto his canvas. He began the series in the mid-eighties and is continuously working on it to this day. At
the end of the series, which is one-third completed, fifty paintings (at roughly two letters each
painting) will spell the sound of the fall of man, or the thunderclap expelling Adam and Eve
from the Garden of Eden. The word in question is:
“Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawnlooho ohoordenenthurnuk.”
Try and say that aloud three times quickly. But wait. Is it not more enjoyable to look at each
and every letter of the word as Anastasi has magically transformed them into arabesques of
pulsating line and color that quiver and float through the visual space of his canvases. “The
attraction was to literary genius,” says Anastasi. His attraction to Joyce started with The Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist and ultimately to Finnegans Wake. During his formative years,
Anastasi remembers that he got into the habit of reading aloud, and that act of reading something aloud made it much more meaningful, much more powerful for him, Anastasi says, “I
was reading Finnegans Wake aloud at the time and I loved this word which represents, among
other things, God’s voice.” Anastasi goes on to explain, “There’s an Irish folkloric tradition that
when a man plunges to death the sound which accompanies his fall is the voice of God. This
word heralds Finnegan’s fall from his scaffold and symbolically propels Lucifer and his followers into hell. It’s a sound object, and I guess connects with my sound objects. It’s a word
about a sound, a word of a sound. I started with sound objects and ended up here doing a
painting of a sound.”
Perhaps to memorialize his 50 year preoccupation with the novel as well as a double homage
to his heroes in literature and art, James Joyce and John Cage respectively, Anastasi has
turned out a series of paintings as electrifying as a flash of lightning with a simultaneous crash
of thunder. The bold, colorful, larger than life size canvases are created in part by chance,
what Anastasi calls “unsighted painting” – painting without consciously looking at the canvas.
Anastasi’s process involves oil sticks, which make it possible to put color on a surface without
choosing the color. In contrast to abstraction, he creates structure in the form of letters. Anastasi employs the old fashioned transparency method where immense blow-ups of each letter
of the word are
traced onto the canvas. In the novel, the word is first introduced to the reader on page one.
It’s the first of ten thunderclaps scattered throughout the novel; each of them has 100 letters.
Each painting includes roughly two letters. Sometimes the letters unintentionally form a word,
for example “on”, “tu” French for “you” and other times the letters visually transmit a sound,
like “o” or “er”. The word as image has long fascinated artists and art lovers. If we think back
to the history of 20th century art, cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque, with their inclusions
of bits of words, instantly come to mind, as do the witty word paintings of Ed Ruscha and the
cool joke paintings of Richard Prince. Paintings with text are attractive to the viewer not only
because they are enjoyable to look at, but they also engaging to read. Words add an intellectual component to the act of looking at a painting.
Lisa Jacobs
William Anastasi
Bababad (ghtak)
1987
Oil on canvas
246 x 546 cm
William Anastasi
Bababad (nn)
2013
Oil, crayon, graphite on canvas
226 x 187 cm
William Anastasi
Bababad (o)
2014
Oil, crayon, graphite on canvas
226 x 187 cm

Portfolio - Galerie Jocelyn Wolff

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