William Anastasi, 60 minutes, 1987
Research on artwork:
William Anastasi (American, b. 1933) created 60 Minutes (1987), a pencil drawing mounted on canvas, in exactly one hour.
Resource: http://www.kunstaspekte.de/index.php?tid=24035&action=termin
Research on artist:
Born in Philadelphia in 1933, Anastasi embraced what he calls Duchamp's recipe-like approach to art-making and in the Sixties and early Seventies did four exhibitions at the Virginia Dwan Gallery, famous for championing Conceptual and Minimal art.
In the first of these shows Anastasi presented "Wall on the Wall," a set of large lithos on canvas of a photograph of the very gallery walls on which the canvases were hanging. His installations, sculptures, and images (painting, drawings, photographs) vary greatly in material and form - arguably one of the reasons for his relative obscurity is that he did not develop a signature style. But certain threads run through and unite Anastasi's work, among them chance and indeterminacy, site-specificity, self-representation and self-reference, seriality and repetition, the use of ready-made and industrial materials, and of text as visual material. Anastasi's work is being increasingly recognized and reappraised, most recently with an exhibition at the Drawing Center in New York (Spring 2007) of some of his earliest sculptures and drawings.
Drawing has long been important to Anastasi. Since the 1960's he has been making "blind" and "subway" drawings, done without looking on paper in his pocket, or in his lap while riding the subway. Part I of this multi-part portrait of William Anastasi is about "Drawing Blind."
Resource: http://www.newarttv.com/William+Anastasi%3A+Drawing+Blind
Personal Reflection:
Upon exploring the virtual MoMA website, I have learnt a new art term, Conceptual art. Art is not created just for beauty and pleasure, but to also allow the viewers to think about its underlying meanings. I like the way William Anastasi uses chance and his spontaneous movements to create art. Somehow, his artworks created relates to things he do in his everyday life. I like his choice of medium, the pencil. It is something simple yet powerful when drawn in large scale.
Anastasi’s concept and notion of the pivotal importance of meanings in every artwork made is very inspiring to me. I love it!
-Candice Lee, class 1A
Hi Candice,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the lesson and have learned something new and interesting. Hopefully, we can put those newly acquired skills to good use in next week's lesson when we make our own modern art piece.