Galerie Jocelyn Wolff

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.

William Anastasi was born in 1933 in Philadelphia. He lives and works in New York, where he exhibited with Dwan gallery. He closely collaborated with John Cage et Merce Cunningham. He is considered as one of the main precursors of conceptual art.