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William Anastasi

William Anastasi is one of the founders of both Conceptual and Minimal Art—relevant works were made before the movements were named. These works, starting in 1961, include Relief and Microphone, among the earliest examples of Conceptual Art.  Between 1963 and 1966, we have Sink—a clear demonstration of entropy—and Issue and Trespass—important forerunners to an entire class of works involving deconstruction. Sink (which combines his Conceptual and Minimal approaches) and En Route, are among the earliest forays into Minimal Art.  Holding that after Duchamp there was no earthly reason why a blind man could not be an artist, his unsighted drawings were also started in 1963. His 1966/67 Six Sites broke the ground for an entire genre of exhibitions under the rubric Site Specific. Underlying his practice is his sense that the only thing that interests him about taste is that it is always changing.


Courtesy of the artist.

Born 1933
Hometown Philadelphia, PA
Lives and Works New York, NY
Permanent Collection

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

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